Delaware State University (DSU) received a five-year $18.36 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the establishment of the Interdisciplinary Health Equity Research Center on campus.
According to the DSU news article, the grant was awarded through the NIH’s Research Centers in Minority Institutions Program. It will enable the Interdisciplinary Health Equity Research Center (IHER) Center to assemble a group of interdisciplinary faculty researchers with a focus on investigating social and behavioral determinants of health and others using biomedical approaches to study the health conditions that have a disparate impact on underserved populations.
The grant funding, according to the news article, will support researchers by developing or expanding core facilities providing services in biostatistics, qualitative social and behavioral research methods, microscopy and electrophysiology. additionally, the project will support investigators working with human subjects by providing an infrastructure for the secure collection, analysis and storage of data.
Three research projects are already underway in the IHER Center. These researchers are all previous Delaware Clinical & Translational Research ACCEL Program investigators/awardees.
- Dr. Janeese Brownlow, Assistant Professor of Psychology, is leading a project entitled “An Investigation of Mental, Physical and Sleep Health: The Role of Social Determinants.”
- Dr. Brian McNaughton, Senior Fellow at Delaware Institute for Science & Technology, is spearheading a project entitled “Integrating Low-Cost Paper-Based Devices and Personalized Immunotherapeutics to Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer.”
- Dr. Sokratis Makrogiannis, Associate Professor in the Division of Physics, Engineering, Mathematics & Computer Science, has launched research on “Machine Learning-based Imaging Biomarkers for Metabolic and Age-related Diseases.”
It is the goal of the ACCEL Program to promote the innovation, acceleration, and translation of research that will improve health outcomes, enhance future funding success, accelerate health care quality, actively engage community members, and advance research careers. Congratulations to our previous ACCEL awardees/investigators!