Aims Increasing the diversity of the biomedical sciences workforce is a national priority. Having a mentor, and more crucially, a personal network of mentors, improves the likelihood that an individual will pursue an advanced degree and career in the biomedical sciences. The chief mission of the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) is to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the biosciences workforce through the mentoring of historically underrepresented individuals. Methods To address this need, we created MyNRMN, an online mentoring platform that connects mentors and mentees nationwide. The platform enables multiple forms of mentoring and recommends connections to mentees that will help them build their personal networks. Results The MyNRMN online platform has registered more than 13,500 active mentors and mentees across all 50 states and from more than 2100 institutions. Black and Hispanic mentees are highly represented. Discussion MyNRMN has expanded opportunities for mentorship in the biomedical sciences, particularly among those not from a culture or institution that historically supports mentorship. The platform's robust search and recommendation capabilities and graph database technology enable members to grow their personal network of mentors. Conclusion The MyNRMN online platform has proven successful in connecting mentees and mentors nationwide, expanding the pipeline in biomedical science careers to attract a more diverse workforce.

Purpose Increased awareness and mitigation of one’s unconscious bias is a critical strategy in diversifying the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) disciplines and workforce. Greater management of unconscious bias can enhance diverse recruitment, persistence, retention, and engagement of trainees. The purpose of this study was to describe the implementation of an asynchronous course on unconscious bias for people in STEMM. Specifically, we explored who engaged with the course and reflections from participation. Method A five-part, asynchronous Unconscious Bias Course was developed and was hosted on a national mentoring platform starting in July 2020. To examine course engagement, we assessed the demographics of course participants and completion. Participant responses to reflection questions after each module were also synthesized using qualitative methods. Results Overall, 977 people registered for the course and 42% completed all modules. In the reflection responses, participants reflected on their unconscious biases in their lived experiences and how it relates to actions, judgements, external factors, stereotypes, and un-intentionality. Participants also reflected on microaggressions, their impact on the recipients and others, and the relationship between microaggressions and unconscious bias. Participants reported four key strategies used by allies against unconscious bias: immediately acting (83%), reflection (46%), improving the organizational culture (30%), and individual-level ally-ship (44%). Strategies for self-awareness included: reflection, pausing/breathing, and self-observation. Conclusion The assessment of the Unconscious Bias Course implementation revealed the course reached a wide cross-section of people in STEMM and demonstrated that participants were able to reflect on the underpinnings of the course. This course, and its suite of offerings, support a nationwide effort to mitigate bias and prepare individuals to be culturally competent in a diverse society in order to foster a STEMM environment that caters to individuals’ success and diversification of these fields.

PurposeIncreased awareness and mitigation of one's unconscious bias is a critical strategy in diversifying the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) and biomedical disciplines and workforce. Greater management of unconscious bias can enhance diverse recruitment, persistence, retention, and engagement of trainees. The purpose of this study was to describe the development and evaluation of an asynchronous course on unconscious bias and the potential effect it may have on healthcare and STEMM. The course was created with biomedical and healthcare practitioners and students in mind. MethodA five-part, asynchronous Unconscious Bias Course was developed and was hosted on a national mentoring platform starting in July 2020. To evaluate program reach, the authors assessed the demographics of participants using the training and evaluated participant responses to a post-test assessment using qualitative methods. ResultsOverall, 977 people registered for the training and 42% completed all modules. In the post-tests, participants reflected on their unconscious biases in their lived experiences and how it relates to actions, judgements, external factors, stereotypes, and un-intentionality. Participants also reflected on microaggressions, their impact on the recipients and others, and the relationship between microaggressions and unconscious bias. Participants reported four key strategies used by allies against unconscious bias: immediately acting (83%), reflection (46%), improving the organizational culture (30%), and individual-level ally-ship (44%). Strategies for self-awareness included: reflection, pausing/breathing, and self-observation.ConclusionThe evaluation of the Unconscious Bias Course showed participants understood the underpinnings of the training. This course, and its suite of offerings, support a nationwide effort to mitigate bias and prepare individuals to be culturally competent in a diverse society in order to foster a STEMM and biomedical environment that caters to individuals' success and diversification of these fields.

BACKGROUND MyNRMN is a national, virtual mentoring platform that seeks to connect mentors and mentees in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) in order to support persistence of underrepresented minorities in the fields. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to examine the diversity of the mentoring connections on the MyNRMN platform. This platform provides mentoring, networking, and professional development tools as well as measures who connects on the platform and the demographic characteristics of these connections. METHODS We observed and analyzed diverse connections by race, ethnicity, gender, institution type, and educational attainment between July 1, 2016 through May 31, 2021. Results: In total, there were 15,010 connections with 2,261 mentees and 1,583 mentors across 1,625 institutions contributing data. RESULTS In total, there were 15,010 connections with 2,261 mentees and 1,583 mentors across 1,625 institutions contributing data. CONCLUSIONS The MyNRMN Platform provides a powerful tool to permit virtual mentoring across institutions throughout the United States. To date, the utility of the networks across institutions and how mentors and mentees connected was unknown. This study demonstrates the diversity of connections occurring on the platform and potential for future use.

One of the most common dyeing problems of textile industries is uneven and faulty dyeing over the finished quality of fabrics due to different reasons. These problems are usually tackled through chemical degradation in which uneven and faulty dye is removed from the surface of fiber but fabric quality is compromised. Chemical process also reduces the strength of the fabric and durability of textile material by reduction in reactive dye ability. The fabric cannot be reused due to the reduced strength. To overcome above mentioned problem, biological method of stripping in which enzymes produced by different micro-organisms are used. This process has no harmful effect on the fabric and is safe for environment. In this research work reactive blue 21 dye with 0.5, 2 and 4% shade strengths was used to dye cotton fabric. The Ganoderma lucidum fungal strains were mutated by UV mutagen, and five were selected for further processing. These mutant strains were grown at temperature ranges (20 °C to 40 °C); pH(3–5); inoculum size(1–5 mL) and fermentation time (3–15 days) . The required nutrients media to produce the ligninolytic enzymes was added to the flask. The strain which gave the fast decolourization results was selected for further optimization. Optimization was done by observing the variables: incubation time 12 days, pH 4, temperature 30 °C, and inoculum size 3 mL by applying Response Surface Methodology (RSM) in Central Composite Design (CCD). During the process of fabric color stripping, the enzyme assay revealed that the respective mutant UV-60 strain produced active enzymes with their V max , Mnp (427U/mL), LiP (785U/mL), and Lac (75 U/mL) enzymes decolorized 89% of the dye which is 25% more than the parent strain and also the production of enzyme is Mnp (344U/mL), LiP (693U/mL), and Lac (59 U/mL) enzymes which is lower than mutant strain.