The Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Initiative provides awards to undergraduate institutions across the country to implement and study innovative approaches to engaging and retaining students from diverse backgrounds in biomedical research. CICATS has a record of success in creating pipeline programs and research experiences in biomedical sciences for underrepresented minority students as indicated by the Young Innovative Investigator Program (YIIP) and the M1 Mentorship Program.  As a result, the University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) invited UConn to be a research partner on their BUILD award.  Under the UTEP BUILD award, there are 13 Research partners, with UConn being the only academic institution from the northeast. Learn more about the most recent cohort of CICATS BUILD Scholars.

CICATS BUILD program is run by Lana Angelo. Recently, Lana traveled to Texas to attend and present at the annual BUILDing Scholars conference. She met up with all of the 2018 CICATS BUILD Scholars.

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