OHSU Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program Goals
The Oregon Health & Science University Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) is supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, OHSU Research & Innovation, and the Vollum Institute. The focus of OHSU PREP is to support a diverse cohort of well-trained recent college graduates who will transition into and complete rigorous biomedical, research-focused doctoral degree programs (e.g., Ph.D., M.D./Ph.D.). The program provides participants with an intensive, mentored 1-year research experience with support from an OHSU faculty member. In addition to a year-long sustained research experience, OHSU PREP scholars will receive individualized competency-based professional and career skill development opportunities that allow for cultural immersion through interactions with near-peer mentors (i.e., graduate students and postdoctoral fellows) and OHSU faculty from marginalized backgrounds and allies alike.
Scholar Testimonials
PREP helped me gain the "confidence to speak about myself in a way where I didn’t feel I needed to be someone else or become someone different. PREP empowers you to be yourself in these [academic] spaces."
-Maria Hayes, Alumni, 2021
"The mentored post-bacc training at OHSU was helpful for me in understanding how to gain admission to and ultimately succeed in graduate school. For URM and first-generation students, programs like these are helpful because they inform of you of the academic landscape, help develop your academic interests and allow you to better communicate your strengths and contributions for graduate applications."
-Rachel De La Torre, Alumni, 2018

Growth Session Thank You
We want to thank Dr. Benjamin Sarno for discussing Reproducibility & Data Management at a recent Growth Session! Dr. Sarno is a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Gordon Mills’ lab in the Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology. He received his PhD from the University of California San Diego in Chemical and Bioengineering with a background in cancer diagnostics. Ben is currently developing a translational technology to interrogate blood plasma from triple negative breast cancer and ovarian cancer patients to identify key biomarkers for early diagnosis and therapy monitoring.