Christine F. Hohmann - US grants

Description (Adapted from Application): The long-term goal of this research is to understand how afferent, neurotransmitter identified systems impact on cortical morphogenesis and through this, behavior. Many neurological and psychiatric disorders of known or suspected developmental onset present with altered innervation by cholinergic or monoaminergic afferent transmitter systems and with concomitant abnormalities in cortical morphogenesis; often, male and female brain are affected differently. The investigators have developed a mouse model that permits them to explore causal relationships between structural, molecular, and behavioral changes in a sex-dependent fashion, and thus, to develop an understanding of what may be amiss in human developmental disorders. Previous morphometric, neurochemical, and behavioral studies in mice with neonatal lesions to basal forebrain cholinergic afferents to cortex [nBM] demonstrate quantifiable alterations of cortical cytoarchitecture that are, in part, sexually dimorphic and correlate with cognitive behavior changes. Neonatal control lesions of monoaminergic afferent to cortex support the conclusion that the morphological as well as the behavioral effects of the neonatal nBM lesion are unique to the transient cholinergic deafferentiation during neocortical development. This strongly suggests that acetylcholine [ACh] plays a role as maturational factor in cortical morphogenesis. The present proposal aims to identify the cellular and molecular mechanisms disrupted by the neonatal nBM lesions in male and female mice and to begin an exploration of potential preventative or therapeutic interventions in the processes that lead to abnormal morphogenesis and cognitive function. Specifically, the investigators will: (1) assess qualitative and qualitative changes in cortical cholinergic muscarinic and nicotinic receptors following the signal transduction pathways indicative of muscarinic cholinergic receptor activation; and (3) explore whether cholinergic enhancement during the perinatal period can ameliorate or prevent the effects of neonatal nBM lesions on cortical morphology, neurochemistry, and behavior. Correlation analysis between morphological, molecular, and behavioral consequences of the neonatal nBM lesion will aid in establishing precise structure/function relationships that can serve to pioneer diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for numerous developmental psychiatric and neurological disorders involving cholinergic hypofunction.

Morgan State University, "the State's Public Urban University", has a tradition of serving an academically and demographically diverse student body. Traditionally, the institution is a teaching institution, however in the last ten years, research has become an integral part of the University's mission. Although the primary goal of Morgan State University is to provide for the training of minority students, mainly African Americans, to enter the national work force, the overall long term goal of this proposal is to increase opportunities for underrepresented minority faculty and students to become acquainted with and motivated to pursue biomedical research careers. However, in order to keep up with the technological changes occurring in the global society, our goal for this program is to (1) increase the number of minority students enrolled within the disciplines of Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Psychology who can successfully compete for graduate programs leading to the Ph.D degree and be nurtured into future biomedical scientists by providing increased research opportunities for students and faculty, internally and externally; (2) strengthen the faculty and research programs in biomedical sciences by increasing biomedical research seminars; providing professional workshops for students and faculty, and (3) aid in enhancing the development of research infrastructure at the institution by establishing a limited faculty development program in the form of seminars; workshops; seed funds to establish research; and collaborative research. In addition support is being requested to continue an administrative component that will be responsible for facilitating the overall synchrony of the activities addressed in this program such that the objectives of the grant and the policies as established by the MBRS RISE program are realized to the maximum level possible. This element consists of the program director, co-director, the administrative assistant, coordinators and consultants for the different activities and an institutional advisory committee. The program director and co-director, along with the institutional advisory committee will coordinate and guide the research activities of the MBRS at Morgan State University.

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term objective of the MBRS RISE Program at Morgan State University is to increase the number of graduates in the physical, behavioral and life sciences who will successfully complete Ph.D. degrees and enter biomedical research careers. Specifically, we aim to increase further, the number RISE graduates who enter graduate training immediately following their BS/BA degree and the proportion of students, who enter Ph.D. program. We also aim to improve the overall rate of BS/BA science graduates at MSU who will enter graduate training, using activities that reach out to the entire MSU student community. This revised, competitive renewal application aims to build on our demonstrated strength of providing undergraduate students with successful preparation for entry into graduate programs. Our current goals are to: 1) Expand students' exposure to externally-funded, competitive research laboratories by combining on campus mentorship with off-campus internships at local and national research intensive universities. 2) Improve students' preparedness by implementing additional academic and research directed training to remedy specific weaknesses pinpointed by recent Program evaluations; 3) Increase students' commitment to graduate education, particularly at the Ph.D. level, by: A) Fostering dynamic learning communities between RISE undergraduates, undergraduate trainees in other Programs and graduate students, inside and outside the labs; B) Providing, to RISE participants and the entire MSU student community, education concerning the economic implications of graduate training towards the Ph.D.; 4) Continue our assessment of students who have graduated from the Program to adjust Program activities to emerging training needs; Assessment of the Program will combine quantitative analysis of outcome measures with surveys of student responses. Such summative data and formative evaluations will be compared against specified Measurable Objectives for the Program, annually, and at the end of the funding cycle, to assess effectiveness. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]

Previous research demonstrated that students who participate in structured thesis writing courses developed stronger writing and critical thinking skills than students who simply worked one-on-one with faculty mentors. It is also well established that writing can be one of the most effective strategies for promoting critical thinking and scientific reasoning, but how writing affects learning is largely unproven. Since higher-order thinking involves restructuring knowledge, the writing activities that evoke this process of knowledge transformation - as well as the mechanisms of effect - still need to be determined. There is substantial evidence that motivation (level of engagement with the task), and self-efficacy (beliefs regarding one's ability to learn) increase learning. Additional processes that are likely to influence learning are epistemology beliefs (beliefs about the nature of knowledge and its justification) and metacognition skills (the ability of students to monitor their thinking and learning strategies). This project is based on the hypothesis that writing affects learning through these four processes. If this is correct, then teaching practices that address all of these mechanisms directly are most likely to optimize learning.

The goal of this research project is to understand whether writing an undergraduate thesis improves critical thinking and writing skills through impacting metacognition, motivation, and beliefs, and whether these effects differ as a function of student characteristics and departmental context. This study will address these effects in two dimensions: (1) across four disciplines (biology, chemistry, economics, and neuroscience) within one university and (2) across four universities within biology departments and colleges. All collaborators teach thesis writing courses, represent a range of institutional contexts, pedagogical approaches, and have diverse student populations. A Faculty Learning Community will be used to facilitate sharing of educational practices, assessment methods, and findings. Nationally recognized teaching experts will guide participants in using assessment results to create effective teaching interventions.

This research will employ pre-/post-intervention experiments and will be conducted concurrently at four universities using a common protocol and study design. The experiments involve different structures and practices at each institution and department around the common task of a capstone thesis and employ a baseline (year 1) and two modification years (Years 2 and 3). Year 1 is baseline with no intervention. In years 2 and 3, instructional practices will be shaped by assessment results and by sharing approaches through the faculty learning community.

Intellectual Merit: Even though these mechanisms interact and operate concurrently, most prior research has examined each mechanism singly. Including all four processes in this model will enable a better understanding of their independent and combined contributions to improvements in critical thinking and scientific reasoning brought about through writing an undergraduate thesis.

Broader impacts: This project will promote teaching and learning practices and the integration of teaching and research in several ways. The work intentionally and explicitly addresses the diversity of students and institutions by studying thesis writers across disciplines and universities representing diverse student populations. Furthermore, it will provide proof of concepts essential to the wider adoption of evidenced-based teaching practices: that students' beliefs, thinking and learning strategies, and motivation are processes that affect learning and can be effectively transformed through writing practices targeted to improve critical thinking and scientific reasoning.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term goal of this RISE Option II application is to significantly increase the number of BS and BA graduates from life, physical and social behavioral sciences departments at Morgan State University (MSU), who will obtain a Ph.D. degree in a relevant field and commit to a research career in biomedical sciences. Over the past decade, the RISE program at MSU has successfully prepared cohorts of selected undergraduate trainees, by means of intensive research training and supplemental activities, for entry into graduate school. Our activities have transitioned an average 50% of our RISE trainees into Ph.D. programs over the current funding period. This proposal will continue our successful strategies, but in addition pursue innovative approaches to increase the impact of the RISE Program on the overall numbers of graduates from relevant disciplines at MSU. Based on our analysis, we must fundamentally improve the academic preparedness of all our students, as well as enhance their abilities to become life long critical thinkers so as to improve graduate school preparedness and significantly increase completion of the Ph.D. degree by our graduates. The current proposal pursues the following Specific Aims: (1) Redesign foundation and cornerstone Biology Classes (Introductory Biology and Cell/Molecular Biology) for science majors with focus on inquiry-based learning and development of critical thinking skills, in line with current, published evidence for effective teaching/training methods. (2) Redesign CHEM 203/204 and PHYS203/204 courses, with focus on inquiry-based learning and development of critical thinking skills, to improve student performance in these critical gatekeeper courses for most science majors at MSU; (3) Pioneer the development of a new multi-disciplinary, interdepartmental and inquiry- based Neuroscience course to help students connect concepts between the behavioral, physical and life sciences; (4.a) Maintain all currently effective MBRS RISE Program activities. (4.b) Enhance mental preparedness and resilience of our students via augmented soft skill development in form of collaborative learning supplemental professional training activities.

Contact PD/PI: Kamangar, Farin Overall Project Summary This application is to request the renewal of ASCEND, Morgan State University's (MSU's) BUILD program. The primary goal of the first phase of ASCEND was to enhance the diversity of the biomedical research workforce by implementing and testing an entrepreneurial training model for undergraduate research. Another major goal was to enhance the research capacity of MSU and its faculty so that ASCEND's interventions can be sustained beyond the funding period. Over its first phase, ASCEND has implemented its interventions, conducted formative and summative evaluations, and presented the results at various forums. The results obtained thus far show considerable success. The implementation of the ASCEND entrepreneurial model at MSU has led to a substantial increase in the number of undergraduate students engaged in biomedical research. Among ASCEND students, there is increased sense of science identity, peer support, and social, academic and research self-efficacy. Faculty publications and external grant submissions have increased. For the second phase, ASCEND investigators plan to continue these efforts, but, based on results obtained from the first phase, some of the interventions will be modified to become more effective, efficient, sustainable, and scalable. Page 73 Project Summary/Abstract Contact PD/PI: Kamangar, Farin Overall

Investigator Development Core ? Project Summary The RCMI program?s objectives are to enable investigators to become more successful in obtaining competitive extramural support from NIH, particularly for research into diseases that disproportionately impact minority and other health disparity populations, and to foster environments conducive to career enhancement. The goal of the RCMI@Morgan Investigator Development Core (IDC) is to support the development and enhance the competitiveness of diverse investigators in basic biomedical, behavioral and/or clinical sciences, with particular emphasis on early-stage investigators. The IDC?s activities will center on (1) the administration of a pilot grant program, (2) provision of additional writing and research support, and (3) community building. Morgan State University?s (MSU) research faculty will be better positioned to be successful applicants for NIH funding if they have been intentionally mentored on the steps and components of the research and grant application process, experienced the review process, and, particularly, provided support for revision and resubmission. Further, finding the time and the discipline to write is challenging in a teaching-intensive environment, and publishing research findings in peer-reviewed journals is an important factor in future success in being awarded funding for research proposals, and thus the IDC will convene Science Writing Accountability Groups (SWAGs), peer accountability groups designed to increase productivity via weekly structured meetings. The high teaching load at MSU can have an isolating effect on our faculty. There seems to be little time for them to attend research seminars on neighboring campuses, and scarce funds to travel to research conferences. Hence, faculty have limited opportunities to build a network of collaborators, let alone acquire new research skills or become familiar with new methodologies and equipment, which hinders faculty from using cutting-edge approaches in their research. Early-career investigators, in particular, need to build robust academic research support networks to have successful careers. A well-structured mentoring program for early career faculty and the opportunity for faculty summer research partnerships and longer-term structured mentorships with faculty at research-intensive partner institutions will help to address this deficit. An innovative aspect of MSU?s approach is to strategically encourage interdisciplinary conversation and collaboration between social/behavioral scientists and basic researchers in STEM disciplines. Providing structured but informal occasions for faculty focusing on health disparities research to network with each other and with bench scientists will create opportunities for cross-fertilization of research ideas and approaches, and the potential to initiate and strengthen research and writing collaborations, among faculty from MSU and from research partner institutions. The IDC?s aims are designed to equip MSU?s investigators with what they need to become successful, funded and productive biomedical and behavioral health investigators and to advance their research careers.