# Excellence in Cardiovascular Sciences Summer Research

> **NIH NIH R25** · WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2021 · $105,494

## Abstract

The renewal of this R25—Excellence in Cardiovascular Sciences (EICS) program--will continue to provide
short-term training for undergraduate students of diverse backgrounds, focusing on research training related to
the cardiovascular system with an emphasis on teams of investigators involved in translational research. This
approach takes advantage of the broad, multidisciplinary cardiovascular research ongoing at Wake Forest
School of Medicine (WFSM), with areas of expertise in hypertension, diabetes/obesity, aging/development and
cardiac, renal and vascular diseases. Faculty from Hypertension & Vascular Research, the Cardiovascular
Sciences Center, the Center for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, and the Departments of
Physiology/Pharmacology, Cardiology, Public Health Science, Pathology and Biochemistry participate as
Research Mentors, many of whom have participated in the program for 20-24 years. The trainees will be
students under-represented in biomedical sciences, those from disadvantaged backgrounds, or those with
disabilities wishing to pursue a biomedical research project. The overall objectives remain to 1) introduce
students to biomedical research through hands-on participation in a research project; 2) introduce students to
critical scientific evaluation by participating in a cardiovascular journal club; 3) provide experience in scientific
writing and speaking through presentation of the research project as a poster; 4) provide exposure to research
faculty, both basic science and clinical; 5) foster a long-term commitment to pursue a career in the biomedical
sciences through an experience that exemplifies the excitement and challenges of clinically relevant
investigation; 6) provide exposure to diverse career opportunities by bi-weekly faculty chats with Career
Mentors; 7) facilitate matriculation into biomedical graduate programs by providing information on applying to
graduate school and taking the GRE examination; 8) provide an in-depth formal evaluation of the mentees by
their Research Mentors; 9) provide a written evaluation of journal club presentations; and 10) provide hands-on
demonstration of state-of-the-art devices to measure cardiovascular parameters. A new objective for the
renewal will include a writing workshop, to develop and hone writing skills. Approximately 80% of the former
participants in the program who have finished their undergraduate degrees matriculated to graduate, medical,
teaching or industrial technical positions. Furthermore, ~11% of the participants have continued their
association with WFSM as PhD students, medical students or technical/post-bac students; three EICS
students from the last cycle participated in the WFSM post-baccalaureate program (PREP) and three EICS
students are currently PhD students in our graduate program. These statistics demonstrate the continued
success of the EICS program and its primary focus of providing training to under-represented minorities to
facilitate their matriculati...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10087543
- **Project number:** 5R25HL092618-14
- **Recipient organization:** WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Debra I Diz
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $105,494
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2008-04-15 → 2023-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10087543

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10087543, Excellence in Cardiovascular Sciences Summer Research (5R25HL092618-14). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10087543. Licensed CC0.

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