Bridges to the Doctorate Program receives $1.28M grant

A San Francisco State University program designed to prepare underrepresented minority master's students for biomedical Ph.D. programs has received a $1.28 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Professor of Biology Megumi Fuse

Professor of Biology Megumi Fuse

The Bridges to the Doctorate Program, a partnership between SF State, the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California, Davis, addresses workforce needs to prepare researchers to tackle health disparity issues, according to program director and Professor of Biology Megumi Fuse. Students accepted into the Bridges program receive a two-year scholarship and academic support designed to prepare them for doctoral research.

Since the first NIH grant that launched the program in 1992 under the direction of Professor of Biology Frank Bayliss, 73 master's students have gone on to Ph.D. programs at partner campuses, with 64 completing their doctoral program or currently enrolled -- an 88 percent retention rate.

For more information, visit http://www.sfsu.edu/~seo/pages/Bridgedesc.html.

-- Jonathan Morales