Recent national and international analyses have recognized the importance of addressing the health disparities between populations from a global health perspective. A major goal of this project is to offer biomedical or health related research training opportunities to eligible students of Alcorn State University (ASU) at Andhra University located in Visakhapatnam city. Andhra University (AU) is one of the oldest universities in India. Structured academic criteria will be used for selecting high quality ASU students who have potential to pursue a career in biomedical research or the health professions. Eight undergraduate and two graduate students will be trained for ten weeks in the summer at AU by well recognized and respected research professors in the areas of neurotoxicology, physiology, protozoology, pathobiology, pollution of marine environments, and testing of plant extracts for antistress, hypoglycemic and antidiabetic activities. Before departure to India, students will receive appropriate orientation and training in basic research at ASU. Students will attend academic refreshers on Responsible Conduct of Research. While at AU, students will be given opportunities to address the cultural, linguistic and ethnic related issues affecting professionals who are engaged in scientific and public health research in India. Students will learn to set up and run research experiments, data collection, analyses and interpretation, and presentation of research results in oral and written format at appropriate forums. AU research mentors will visit ASU to review progress and guide MHIRT participants in a productive conclusion of research work. AU mentors will also guide the ASU graduate students in their thesis research work. In the last three years of MIRT training, 31 students have been trained in India, ten of these are in graduate or professional schools, the rest of them are currently in school at ASU. Many of them have done research beyond the summer training. They have published three peer reviewed articles, and have presented 30 papers at national research conferences. A majority of these students have expressed interest to enter graduate or professional schools. These previous trainees feel that this has been a unique and enriching experience. All activities will be evaluated for their effectiveness. Because of India's great diversity and abundance of health disparity issues, ASU students will be richly benefited from this international research training. [unreadable] [unreadable]