CSUMB gets $1 million grant to train students in biomedical data science

Cal State Monterey Bay just received $1 million from the National Institutes of Health  to train students in biomedical data science.

There is a growing demand for new ways to store, manage, analyze, and use the massive amounts of electronic data being generated, especially medical data. The five-year grant will help to train professionals for that field and will target students from historically underrepresented and low-income backgrounds.

The grant will be used for three major efforts:

• To establish a summer research program for CSUMB students at the Center for Big Data in Translational Genomics at UC Santa Cruz. The center works to help the biomedical community use genomic information to better understand human health and disease. Visiting CSUMB students will spend the summer working side-by-side with UCSC scientists and data specialists, learning research skills to manage and interpret genomic data.

• To develop new programs, such as an interdisciplinary statistics major, that will include math, statistics, biology, behavioral and computer sciences to prepare students for graduate school and careers in research or industry.

• To create opportunities to extend CSUMB faculty training and research in biomedical data science in collaboration with UCSC faculty members and researchers.