# Biomedical workforce near-peer mentees support public education and participation in research

> **NIH NIH R25** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $27,029

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The 7th Annual USA Science and Engineering Festival (USASEF) in Washington D.C. is expecting to draw
350,000 people to the free, 2.5 day festival in April, 2020. The goal of the festival is to increase public interest
in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) using interactive exhibits. The National Institutes of
Health (NIH) previously hosted exhibit booths at the 2010, 2012, and 2018 USASEFs to enhance public
understanding of biomedical research. These efforts were in collaboration with NIH Science Education
Partnership Award (SEPA) grantees from Oregon and West Virginia, who brought a collaborative research
exhibit specifically designed to translate NIH-funded research for the public to understand and enjoy. This
proposal requests a 4-month administrative supplement to extend our previously developed collaboration that
leverages our independent SEPA projects. Specifically, we propose to provide a lifestyle public education
exhibit that explains how DNA influences our health behaviors through the expression of proteins that shape
the ways our bodies function (e.g., ranging from taste perception to skin melanin that protects cells from sun
damage). USASEF attendees will be able to anonymously participate in an interactive NIH-funded research
study that informs them about their own health and the process of biomedical research while contributing their
anonymous information to a national population database, enabling students and scientists to study
relationships between health factors. A new feature of our exhibit will be showcasing NIGMS-funded
biomedical research trainees across levels of schooling (i.e., high school, undergraduate, graduate), who will
offer near-peer mentorship of each other during the research exhibit as well as when interacting with student
attendees of the exhibit, who comprise the largest fraction of USASEF attendees. Ultimately, this collaborative
exhibit aims to increase public awareness of NIH-funded biomedical research and its training opportunities in
an interactive and engaging way.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10075102
- **Project number:** 3R25GM129840-02S1
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Lisa K Marriott
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $27,029
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2023-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10075102

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10075102, Biomedical workforce near-peer mentees support public education and participation in research (3R25GM129840-02S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10075102. Licensed CC0.

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