The National Institutes of Health has awarded the, in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology with a $3.8 million grant in support of North Carolina A&T State University’s Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) program.

The RISE program was established in the biology department in 2007. The grant will support 40 undergraduate students at its maximum capacity and 10 master’s level students annually for five consecutive years.

The goal of the MBRS-RISE program is to increase the number of students in areas of biomedical and behavioral research. These students will be trained and mentored in state of the art research practices. They will also travel and present data at science conferences, participate in seminars, supplemental instruction, bridge programs, learning and living communities, and prepare for admission and success in tier Ph.D. programs. 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been awarded a five-year $54.6 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

With the award, UNC-CH will partner with two institutions, RTI International and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, to accelerate the pace at which clinical and translational research directly benefits patients and communities in North Carolina.

The grant is NIH’s second to support the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC TraCS) Institute. The project is expanding to include RTI International as a research partner and N.C. A&T as a planning partner.

The partnership with A&T will give UNC researchers access to the state-of-the-art laboratories at the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, while providing A&T faculty collaborative opportunities and financial resources to accelerate discoveries in the lab to patients, particularly those from underrepresented minorities. 

“Together, we will develop a robust pipeline of minority clinical and translational research scientists in a manner that can be a model for the nation,” said Barry L. Burks, vice chancellor for research and economic development at A&T.

The three institutions will focus on three strategic initiatives:

1. Next-generation technologies to transform the nature of clinical
research and practice,

2. Robust comparative effectiveness studies to provide definitive evidence of the benefits and/or harms of tests and treatments, and

3. New paradigms and resources to accelerate drug development.

Launched in 2006, the NIH-led CTSA program has enabled innovative research teams to speed discovery and advance science aimed at improving the nation’s health. Institutional CTSA awards are at the centerpiece of the program, providing academic homes for translational sciences. The program currently supports a consortium of approximately 60 academic medical institutions that is fostering team science, leveraging national resources and transforming the way biomedical research is conducted across the country.

“The goal and mission of NC TraCS will continue to enable investigators, research units and academic programs to be even more successful in making lives better in our state’s communities,” said Marschall S. Runge, principal investigator of the CTSA at UNC and executive dean for the School of Medicine. 

On Friday, Nov. 1, the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMOC) will host a summit, Media Coverage of Civil and Human Rights in 2013: Unfiltered and Unbiased? The event will convene in Crosby Hall.

Among the participants will be Bob Butler (National Association of Black Journalists), Dexter Mullins (Al Jazeera America) and Sandra Hughes (veteran broadcast journalist).

Numerous civil and human rights-related news events have taken place this year, including the recent Supreme Court action involving the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the George Zimmerman trial and coverage, the 50th anniversaries of the Birmingham Bombing and the March on Washington, North Carolina’s Moral Mondays, and the tenuous situation facing Greensboro’s International Civil Rights Museum.

The first of two town hall sessions, Media Accuracy in Civil and Human Rights, will examine how accurately media have covered civil rights, human rights and race-related issues in 2013. The session will convene 11 a.m.–12:15 p.m. in the television studio (third floor).

In addition to Butler, confirmed speakers for the first session include Drs. Kim Smith and Vanessa G. Cunningham-Engram, who teach in A&T’s journalism department; Cassandra Wynn, A&T alumna and journalism professor at Johnson C. Smith University; Kerry Charles, FOX 8 anchor and president of the Triad Association of Black Journalists; and Dexter Mullins, A&T alumnus and digital news producer for Al Jazeera America.

The second session, Crisis Communications in Civil Rights, will explore crisis communications and the role of public relations professionals and media practitioners in high-profile civil rights and criminal cases involving race and ethnicity. The session will take place at 12:15–1:15 p.m. in room 215.

Confirmed speakers for the second session, Crisis Communications in Civil Rights, are Shawn Jackson, A&T graduate and current intern at Edelman, the global public relations firm based in Chicago, Ill.; Denada Jackson, A&T alumna and owner of Bella Roca PR & Events in Charlotte, N.C.; Irish Gaymon-Spencer, A&T alumna and owner of The Spencer Group Inc. in Greensboro, N.C.; and Ricky Clemons, a public relations professor at A&T.

A reception honoring Hughes will be from 1:15–2 p.m. in room 217. Hughes, who also teaches at A&T, is a recipient of this year’s Piedmont Triad’s National Conference for Community and Justice award and citation.

For information, contact Bonnie Newman Davis, Greensboro News & Record-Janice Bryant Howroyd Endowed Professor of Journalism, at Bbdavis1@ncat.edu or 336-334-7900.