SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 22, 2014 -- San Francisco State University has been awarded $17.04 million to address issues of workforce diversity in biomedical research, the National Institutes of Health announced today.

The effort is called SF BUILD, which stands for Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity. Professors in biology, chemistry/biochemistry, psychology, geography & environment, and other fields at SF State working on the project are seeking to upend the presuppositions about members of minority communities -- that they may not have the aptitude or the background to excel in the sciences. "We are funded to prime institutional transformation," said Professor of Biology Leticia Márquez-Magaña, the principal investigator for SF BUILD. "Let's fix the institution, instead of fixing the students and not recognizing their assets."

The NIH -- the federal agency that conducts and supports medical research, and also investigates the causes and treatments of diseases -- has committed $240 million over five years toward novel approaches that encourage individuals, including those among groups underrepresented in the sciences, to pursue biomedicine. "We have not made substantial progress in supporting diversity," said NIH Director Francis S. Collins. "This program will test new models of training and mentoring so that we can ultimately attract the best minds from all groups to biomedical research."

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