LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- When Tazee Mahjied transferred to Rider University from Mercer Community College in the fall of 1996, he enrolled as psychology major and received a degree in that field in December. But his interest in medicine and attending medical school has grown since coming to Rider.

His ability to make that dream come true recently took a huge step forward when through the National Cancer Institute's minority research supplement fund he was awarded him a $12,000 grant to support his research work in the laboratory of Dr. James Riggs, professor of biology at the University.

Riggs is currently working under a three-year, $102,000 NIH grant to support his research on the aging of the immune system and, in particular, the development of B cell lymphoma.

While Riggs has other students assisting him under the current project and has had several others work with him during his Rider tenure, Mahjied is the first to receive this support for minority students in collegiate research settings.

"I am particularly excited about working with Tazee as he is an older, more responsible student who has demonstrated excellent time-management skills and a budding interest in research science," Riggs said. "He clearly has the acumen to contribute to our research."

Mahjied, 31 years old and a Trenton resident, continues to take pertinent lab-based classes with an eye on medical school and an eye on gaining as much research experience as he can. He plans to take his Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) in August.

"Since this award is not something the National Cancer Institute just gives out, I feel privileged to be a recipient. I really enjoy working in Dr. Riggs' lab," Mahjied said. "I've had general biology laboratories. Here this is an on-going experience. Here you really learn to conduct research and how to conceptualize, theorize, and take it through to results."

Mahjied participates in the entire spectrum of research activities needed to address the goals of Riggs' grant. Daily he checks the health status of the immune-deficient and aging mice. These mice represent a pool of animals used in the studies of immune system aging and B lymphoma generation. He will learn necropsy and lymphocyte isolation for tissue culture, transplantation, RNA isolation, flow cytometric analysis, preparation of samples for immunofluorescence analysis, and other lab techniques.

In addition, Riggs has closely collaborated with Dr. Monte Hobbs, designer of RNase protection assays, at the University of Michigan. Hobbs also has received minority supplement funds for a

trainee and has invited Riggs to bring Mahjied to Ann Arbor to learn how to conduct RNase protection assay.

"This will be tremendous experience for Tazee, visiting one of the nation's premier research universities and completing a critical component of my research," Riggs added.

Riggs said Mahjied will benefit greatly from the year-long research experience. As a psychology major with interests in medicine, his exposure to laboratory science involved the required general biology, chemistry, and physics laboratories that comprise the average premedical studies that comprise the average premedical studies student's schedule. This provides sufficient background for the taking the required entrance exams for graduate and medical schools.

By working in the laboratory, Mahjied will experience how research is conducted and the amount of work involved in making new discoveries. He will also attend one regional and one national conference.

Through four semesters at Rider, Mahjied has compiled a solid academic record and a story of perseverance and determination to achieve his goals. Since entering Mercer Community College, he has worked full-time, most recently as night shift machinist.

Interested in helping others, Mahjied has completed volunteer work with the mentally retarded at the North Princeton Development Center. To explore the medical profession, he completed Rider's hospital internship program at Capitol Health Systems at Helene Fuld Medical Center.

This internship program allows students to rotate through various departments. This was a galvanizing experience for Mahjied, convincing him a career in medicine was now his primary objective.

During the internship, he met Richard Siderits, M.D., director of pathology, who invited him to participate in two projects. One, which has been completed, was to design and establish a web page on melanoma for the hospital. The other was to transcribe 16th century medical texts for a software package that Dr. Siderits is developing. These experiences reinforced his interest in medicine.

Add Mahjied's previous experience to his intensive period of cutting-edge research with Riggs, and this is one young man who has to be an attractive medical school applicant.