PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The goal of our program, Promoting Underrepresented and Marginalized Populations’ Advancement in the Sciences (PUMAS), is to increase the number of well-trained biomedical research scientists from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the field. We propose to do this by providing twelve summer research opportunities in Gladstone labs for community college students from such backgrounds. When students from underrepresented and marginalized populations (URMs) gain first-hand experience in state-of-the-art labs such as those at Gladstone, they are more prepared for success in their pursuit of science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) degrees when they transfer to a four-year institution, and more likely to pursue advanced degrees in biomedical research. This then increases the number of URMs who apply for graduate school and diversifies biomedical research. For nine weeks each summer, the PUMAS participants are paired with a scientific mentor at Gladstone to work on a specific research project in a number of biomedical fields including cardiovascular disease and pulmonary diseases. They spend 75% of their time doing biomedical research, including independent research activities, receiving one-on-one mentoring and attending laboratory meetings, scientific lectures, seminars and journal clubs. They spend the other 25% of their time participating in supplementary educational activities, which include a week-long biotech boot-camp and a series of professional development workshops geared to inspire students and develop them as scientists, better prepared to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in the sciences. The PUMAS program culminates with a poster session in which students describe their research, hypotheses and findings to the scientific community at Gladstone, allowing them to increase their self-identity as scientists. The PUMAS program recruits students who are currently enrolled in a community college, have successfully completed at least two semesters of college-level science courses with a lab component (chemistry and molecular biology preferred, but not required), and who intend to transfer to a four-year institution to pursue a baccalaureate degree in STEM. We do this primarily by marketing the PUMAS program to 27 community colleges through their science professors and directors of programs like Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) within the Bay Area. We also do wider outreach via webinars, podcasts, career fairs and diversity conferences to reach community college students with a strong STEM interest. We chose to focus on community college students because this population is often overlooked and has the highest percentage of URM students both by race/ethnicity and by economic disadvantage enrolled across systems of higher education in our state.