• NIGMS, along with the Indian Health Service and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, has reannounced the Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH) program. The program encourages research on diseases and health conditions of importance to American Indians and Alaska Natives. It also prepares Native American biomedical and behavioral scientists and health professionals to compete for NIH funding. A third goal is to increase the capacity of both the research-intensive organizations and the Native American organizations to work together to produce competitive research proposals. For more information on the NARCH awards, see the announcement on the NIGMS Web site at http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/ NOT-GM-04-107.html.

• NIH sponsors several loan repayment programs that will repay up to $35,000 per year of qualified education debts and provide coverage for Federal and state tax liabilities in exchange for a 2-year research commitment from Ph.D. and M.D. professionals pursuing research careers in specified areas. Applicants must commit 50 percent of their work time, or at least 20 hours per week, to the research program. The awards are open to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or U.S. nationals. The next application season is expected to begin on September 1, 2004. For more information on the NIH Loan Repayment Program, see http://www.lrp.nih.gov.

• Carlos G. Gutierrez, Ph.D., the MARC and MBRS program director at California State University, Los Angeles, received the Lifetime Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science at the organization's annual meeting in February. The award honors individuals who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in science and engineering fields. Gutierrez, a professor of chemistry, is credited with mentoring more than 200 students during his 27-year career at the university.

• Keith Pannell, Ph.D., the MARC program director at the University of Texas at El Paso, received the American Chemical Society Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution at the society's national meeting in March. The annual award recognizes a chemistry faculty member whose research in an undergraduate setting has achieved wide recognition and contributed significantly to chemistry and to the professional development of undergraduate students. Over the course of his career, Pannell, who is also an MBRS subproject investigator, has published more than 180 research papers, many with undergraduate coauthors.

• Joseph Cameron, Ph.D., the Bridges to the Future program director at Jackson State University in Mississippi, has received the Outstanding Contributions to Science Award from the Mississippi Academy of Sciences. The award is presented annually to an academy member whose research, teaching, or service to the community has significantly furthered the cause of science. Cameron is a professor of biology and coordinator of graduate studies at Jackson State University.

• For more than 20 years, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) has supported the training of minority scientists through a MARC grant that funds visiting scientist programs, travel awards, grant workshops, and career development seminars. For more infor-mation about FASEB's MARC program, including an overview of recent activities and applications for its programs, visit https://ns2.faseb.org/marc.

In recent months, we have received word about the following student participants in NIGMS minority programs. • Constanza Berger, a former MARC undergraduate student at Barry University in Miami Shores, FL, is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in psychology at Florida International University in Miami. • Jeff Celaje, a former MBRS program participant at California State University, Los Angeles, is now in graduate school at Princeton University in New Jersey. • Ferman Chavez, a former MARC undergraduate student at California State University, Long Beach, completed his Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is now an assistant professor of bioinorganic chemistry at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. • Alvaro Duque, a former MBRS program participant at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, is now a postdoctoral fellow in the neuro-biology department at Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. • Sixto Gonzalez, a former MARC undergraduate student at the University of Puerto Rico, Humacao, received his Ph.D. in physics from Utah State University in Logan and is now director of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Gonzalez also serves as assistant director for Space and Atmospheric Sciences at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, where he is a senior research scientist in the Atmospheric Sciences Department. • Kester Haye, a former MARC undergraduate student at the City University of New York, Brooklyn College, is in his second year of M.D.-Ph.D. studies at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, where he participates in the NIGMS Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program. • Dale Lewis, a former MBRS program participant at the City University of New York, Bronx Community College, earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology at Princeton University and is now a research scientist with the National Cancer Institute. • Pedro Ortiz, a former MARC undergraduate student at Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico,is currently a graduate student at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Camden, where he is the recipient of a MARC predoctoral fellowship. • Randolph Roberts, a former MBRS and Bridges program participant at Barry University, is pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. • Alex Rodriguez, a former MBRS program participant at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, is now a postdoctoral fellow at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. • Vanessa Ruta, a former MBRS and MARC program participant at the City University of New York, Hunter College, is currently a graduate student at Rockefeller University in New York City, where she works in the lab of NIGMS grantee Roderick MacKinnon, a winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Ruta was part of the research team that solved the structure of the voltage-dependent potassium ion channel. She contributed to three papers about the research in the journal Nature last spring, including one as first author. • Joseph Sisneros, a former MARC undergraduate student at California State University, Long Beach, completed his Ph.D. at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne and is now an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle. • Christina Stujenske, a former MARC undergraduate student at Barry University, is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical science at Vanderbilt University. • Irving Vega, a former MARC undergraduate student at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, and a former MARC predoctoral fellow at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, is now a senior research fellow in the department of neuroscience at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Jacksonville, FL. • Jose Vega, a former MBRS program participant at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, is now a post-doctoral fellow at the Schepens Eye Research Institute at Harvard University in Boston, MA.

We are always interested in hearing about NIGMS minority program faculty, alumni, and students. Photographs of your students, research labs, and activities are also welcomed and encouraged.

Please send information to:
Editor
NIGMS Minority Programs Update
Room 3AN.32
45 Center Drive MSC 6200
Bethesda, MD 20892-6200
Tel: 301-496-7301
Fax: 301-402-0224
atheys@nigms.nih.gov