NIH grantee Whitney, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has recruited investigator Lewis, an associate professor at San Jose State University, to Whitney's study of the effects of depression on stroke patients. The collaboration offers Lewis, an African American, a chance to do research at San Jose State, where "teaching, not research, is the priority." For Whitney, Lewis offers experience that will be invaluable in a study with a large number of inner-city minority subjects.
The minority supplements program should not be viewed as the preferred way for minority investigators to enter the lab, say science administrators who have spent years trying to increase the number of minorities engaged in biomedical research. There's nothing wrong with additional research money and an extra pair of hands at the bench, they say, but those reasons aren't sufficient. "We must avoid telling minorities that the only way they can succeed is ...
