The National Institutes of Health has awarded the University of Texas at El Paso a 5-year grant totaling more than $4.2 million to support the Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) Program at UTEP.  Over the next five years, the grant will fund research training for 35 undergraduate students and nine doctorate students from the colleges of science and engineering to conduct biomedical research.

“The NIH is very interested in funding programs that generate future Ph.D.s and academics in biomedical research, and in particular, increasing the number of minorities in this area of research,” said Renato Aguilera, Ph.D., professor and director of the biology graduate program at UTEP and principle investigator for the RISE Program grant. “Our program has been very successful in producing future Ph.D.s, some of whom are now enrolled in schools like Princeton, Cal Tech, UC Berkeley and UT Southwestern.”

Pictured is Renato Aguilera, PhD, along with students of the RISE Program.

Image contributed by UTEP News Services.