Background
The National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health supports innovative research and development in biomedical informatics and data science. Through the R25 program, NLM is developing a new generation of scientists capable of leading biomedical informatics and data science research into the future. The program's goal is to encourage talented undergraduate and master’s students in biomedical and behavioral sciences to pursue further training and careers in these important fields. Through foundational skills-building and mentorship, the NLM R25 program is strengthening a wide-ranging NIH-supported workforce that will foster scientific innovation, enhance global competitiveness, and improve the quality of research.
The Training and Experiential Learning in Biomedical Informatics (TExBioMed) Summer Institute is intentionally designed to provide research opportunities to all students, with a focus on insufficiently represented groups in biomedical informatics, health informatics, public health informatics, and related fields, while also aiming to strengthen and expand the nation’s capable workforce to meet the advances of the 21st Century. The next generation of multidisciplinary investigators will require foundational training and experience in life and physical sciences and computational, mathematical, and engineering disciplines to tackle increasingly complex problems that impact our health.
TExBioMed, a research education initiative led by Dr. Gabriela Wilson, the Director of the Louisiana Center for Health Innovation (LCHI), will recruit and immerse talented undergraduate students in a training environment that will expose them to the current state-of-the-art in biomedical informatics, health and public health informatics, and data science. TEXBioMed faculty members span multiple participating colleges and have complementary expertise in genomics, bioinformatics, health informatics, public health informatics, bioengineering, biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and computer science.
The program is focused on increasingly important and various approaches that foster data-driven discovery in the biomedical and clinical health sciences to predict and diagnose disease, develop targeted therapies, and personalize health and wellness plans more efficiently. The TExBioMed program emphasizes the importance of multidisciplinary research as an increasingly critical approach to answering biological questions while addressing health disparities.
The ultimate goal is to motivate student participants to pursue careers in bioinformatics, health informatics, public health informatics, data science, and other STEM disciplines and increase the talent pool to fulfill the nation’s current and future workforce needs.
Funding
The TexBioMed Summer Institute is supported by the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R25LM014215.
Setting
The program will take place on the beautiful campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Timeline
The program is 12 weeks long (May 12 through August 1, 2025). View the program calendar here.
Applications are accepted Nov. 15, 2024, through Feb. 22, 2025. Apply for the program here.