"We were one of the first schools funded under the MARC program and we have maintained continuous funding over the last 25 years," said Isabella Finkelstein, chair of the Biology Department at CAU and director of the MARC program. "We started our MARC program in 1977, and the first Ph.D. earned by one of our student alumni was in 1988."

Since its inception, approximately 300 students have gone through the CAU MARC program. Currently, 30 students are enrolled. Students from CAU as well as the other Atlanta University Center (AUC) schools (including Spelman, Morehouse and Morris Brown Colleges) who are majoring in biology, biochemistry, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computer science can apply to the program in the spring of their sophomore year. Their applications are evaluated and the committee interviews prospects. Those selected receive partial tuition, a monthly stipend and summer research experiences as well as help with applications and preparation for graduate study.

"All first-year (rising junior) students are required to enroll in Biomedical Experimentation here at Clark Atlanta," said Dr. Finkelstein. "This course includes components in molecular biology, biochemistry, bioethics, bioinformatics and electron microscopy but also includes any new areas pertinent at the time. In the last three or four years, we have had some students come into the program with research experience who have applied and been accepted into some very prestigious external summer research internships, like the Leadership Alliance's Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP)."

"In MARC and MBRS (Minority Biomedical Research Support), the NIH has two of the few training programs that have sustained continuous funding," said Dr. Finkelstein. "So many programs that are designed to increase minority representation in the sciences will be funded for only five or maybe ten years. However, you can only begin to see real outcomes if you sustain these programs for the long term." The 27 AUC MARC alumni earned their doctoral degrees from 22 of the country's finest universities, including three HBCUs-Florida A&M University, Morehouse Medical School and Meharry Medical School.

The AUC MARC program, which is currently in the competitive renewal process for five-year funding, has 30 undergraduates, including 15 juniors who entered the program during the summer 2001 term. AUC MARC students, three from CAU, two from Spelman, one from Morehouse and one from Morris Brown, presented summer research findings at the Leadership Alliance Summer Symposium. CAU's Elizabeth Gordon did an SR-EIP internship at Schering-Plough Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Finkelstein is expecting three of the program alumni to earn their Ph.D.s this fall from Harvard, Yale and Vanderbilt Universities.

The Harvard doctoral candidate, Michelle Lee, is a MARC alumna who graduated from Spelman in 1991. She has completed the first two years of medical school and defended her dissertation as she works toward an M.D./Ph.D. She expects to complete the final medical school rotations in two years.

One of Dr. Finkelstein's favorite success stories is Carlton Cooper. This AUC MARC alumnus, who earned his M.S. from Clark Atlanta and his Ph.D. from Mississippi State University, would have had to drop out of Morehouse College after his sophomore year for lack of funding. He is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan doing work on prostate cancer.

"Clark Atlanta University, in its incarnations as Clark College and Atlanta University, has always been dedicated to producing student excellence, concluded Dr. Finkelstein. "Our students are able to compete in the most prestigious graduate schools. In the sciences, we are proud to make available excellent facilities, a wide and deep breadth of faculty knowledge and, through programs like MARC, financial assistance and research experience that offers them one of the best academic experiences to be found anywhere in this country."

In addition to their undergraduate program, Clark Atlanta offers the M.S. and Ph.D. in biological sciences. The Ph.D. was added in 1966 and the first Ph.D. was awarded in 1970. Since then, approximately 70 Ph.D.s have been awarded.