A team of interdisciplinary faculty members at The University of Texas at El Paso has been awarded $225,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to plan a new initiative that develops opportunities for mentoring and biomedical and health research for minority undergraduate students. Only 15 grants were awarded nationwide.

The UTEP team developing the plan consists of seven investigators: Renato Aguilera, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences; Thomas Boland, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering; Tim Collins, Ph.D., and Sara Grineski, Ph.D., associate professors of sociology and anthropology; Lourdes Echegoyen, Ph.D., director of the Campus Office of Undergraduate Research Initiatives; Osvaldo Morera, Ph.D., professor of psychology; and Homer Nazeran, Ph.D., professor of electrical and computer engineering.