What began six years ago at Dickinson State University (DSU) as a makeshift lab in a converted storage closet equipped with instruments purchased on eBay has become a student career path to opportunities in medicine and biomedical research.

Two National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants awarded to and administered by the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences in 2001 and 2004 enabled DSU to equip a high-tech lab in which students can participate in biomedical research, opening the door to graduate and medical schools.

DSU student Shinobu Chinju is a post-degree biology major from Yokohama, Japan.

DSU student Tafadawa Bhobho is a sophomore from Harare, Zimbabwe.

“We’re doing really well at getting students into the schools they want to attend,” notes Lynn Burgess, PhD, toxicologist and associate professor of biology at DSU. “All my students who want to go to graduate school in research have gotten into the school they wanted to go to.”

Some of his students have chosen to attend UND for medical school or graduate programs in biomedical research.

“When I got here nine years ago, it was rare for a student from Dickinson State to go on immediately after graduation. It just happened every now and then,” Burgess says. “Now, the students who want to go to graduate school can go.”

DSU sophomore Godwin Konde, from Ghana, developed an interest in molecular biology as a result of working in the lab with Burgess.

“I hope to continue research and probably develop a career from that,” he says. “I’m looking at going to graduate school in North Dakota, preferably UND.”

The two Institutional Development Award (IDeA) grants from the NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) made the difference. The goal was for UND and NDSU – the state’s two research universities – to work with North Dakota’s four baccalaureate institutions and five tribal colleges to get their students interested in biomedical research.

The three-year, $6 million Biomedical Research Infrastructure (BRIN) program came first in 2001. The second phase, the IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE), is a five-year, $16.3 million program that began in 2004.

Burgess says the process of convincing students to participate in research has been challenging at times, but their attitudes are changing.

“Students learn from other students that this is not a big scary thing,” he explains. “They’re starting to understand that research is something that applies to their lives and all forms of biology. Research is a way of solving problems and answering questions.”