South Texas Doctoral Bridge Program

This renewal application stems from our successful first four years of a Bridge-to-the-Doctorate grant (South
Texas Doctoral Bridge Program (STDBP; 2013-2017) supporting a partnership between the University of
Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio; PhD-granting) and Texas State
University – San Marcos (TxState, master's granting). The overarching goal of the STDBP is to increase the
number of individuals from populations underrepresented (UR) in the biomedical sciences with quality
education, research training, and mentorship that will position them to enter the best doctoral programs in the
nation. Our program objectives are to recruit and train UR TxState students to complete a thesis-based M.S.
degree and to prepare them not only to be competitive for acceptance into top-ranked biomedical doctoral
programs, but also to be successful once they matriculate into those programs. During the prior 4 year project
term, 22 M.S. graduate students received financial support from the STDBP grant award and have been
trained in basic research by a cadre of highly motivated and talented participating faculty. Over 70% (10/14)
of the Bridge Scholars who have exited the program bridged successfully to doctoral programs within two
years of enrolling in the M.S. program. These include 8 Bridge Scholars who graduated with M.S. degrees
and are currently enrolled in doctoral programs (7 Ph.D. and 1 D.V.M.) at outstanding research-intensive
institutions including; UT Health San Antonio, Baylor College of Medicine, Duke University, Johns Hopkins
University, University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, and Dartmouth College, amongst others as well
as 2 Bridge Scholars who did not complete the master's degree because they elected to, and have transition
directly to Ph.D. programs (UNC Chapel Hill and University of Iowa respectively) after their first year in the
Bridge program. All STDBP alumni that have bridged continue to do well in their doctoral programs and
several have since garnered merit-based awards since matriculating. One of the two Bridge Scholars who
graduated with M.S. degrees but are yet to bridge, has stated plans to apply this fall to professional programs
and the other is assessing career options. Eight Bridge Scholars remain in M.S. training (5 of who will also
apply to Ph.D. programs this year for Fall 2018 entry) and two were terminated from the program early on for
not meeting programmatic requirements with one of the latter still at TxState completing the requirements for
the M.S. degree. Therefore excluding those dismissed from the program, overall, 10/12 Bridge Scholars
(83%) seamlessly transitioned to doctoral studies without any time lapse. In this first cycle, the STDBP
developed a new course focused on critical thinking, experimental design & analysis and responsible conduct
of research to strengthen the curriculum at TxState. This course is now established and incorporated into the
core curriculum for all M.S. (Bridge and non-Bridge) students in the Chemistry & Biochemistry department.
Building on these accomplishments, our vision in this STDBP renewal is to further increase the number of UR
students who graduate from TxState and successfully bridge to top-tier doctoral programs nationwide. To
accomplish this, we will use a combination of: (i) enhancement of the TxState curriculum by development of
new contemporary curriculum in “Genomics & Bioinformatics” and “Scientific Rigor & Reproducibility”; (ii)
innovative and targeted developmental activities designed to prepare Bridge Scholars to continue to be
competitive for admission to, and success at, top-tier doctoral programs; and (iii) refinements in student
recruitment strategies and student tracking as well as mentor training. This competing renewal application
seeks continued support again for 6 trainees each year for 5 years.