Grant Fund’s Nation’s First Hispanic Health Research Center

A $7.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will fund a new, five-year study of minority health disparities by researchers from The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston and The University of Texas Brownsville/Texas Southmost College. Research will focus on the predominantly (85 percent) Hispanic population of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and its major health threats - obesity and cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.

The grant will fund the nation’s first research center exclusively dedicated to studying the health problems of Hispanics.

“This is a major research and development grant that will be shared by both of our institutions,” said Joseph B. McCormick, M.D., dean of the Brownsville Regional Campus of the UT School of Public Health at Houston.

Scientists at the new center will tackle issues of health disparities, build data on Hispanic health, develop intervention strategies, and initiate research collaborations throughout south Texas. McCormick will serve as principal investigator and will be joined by Luis Colom, M.D., Ph.D., co-principal investigator and chairman of the college’s biology department.

Top scientists will lead work in three core research areas: obesity and cardiovascular disease, headed by Steven H. Kelder, Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology; diabetes, under the direction of Craig L. Hanis, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences; and cancer, led by Guillermo Tortolero-Luna, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of epidemiology, all three with the UT-Houston School of Public Health. Peter J. Davies, M.D., Ph.D., will launch a study of the molecular components of these diseases. He is a professor of integrative biology and pharmacology at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

All research will be carried out in the Lower Rio Grande Valley by UT staff, supervised by local scientists, including Susan P. Fisher-Hoch, M.D.; Maureen Sanderson, Ph.D.; Belinda Reininger, Dr.PH; and Adriana Perez, Ph.D.

The grant, managed by the NIH’s National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, is part of a federal program called “Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training,” known as Project EXPORT.

The renewable EXPORT grant will support disease prevention programs, faculty and undergraduate training, community outreach, statistical and economic analysis, as well as molecular and genetics research. A pilot study program will attract young scientists and encourage them to engage in health research in south Texas.

The award, announced April 10, is the first NIH grant for the Brownsville Regional Campus and for The University of Texas Brownsville/Texas Southmost College.

“One of the purposes of the grant is to create the possibility for further NIH-funded research, so we anticipate considerable expansion of research efforts over the coming years,” said McCormick. “We hope this prestigious award will mark the beginning of a flourishing of science in the Lower Rio Grande Valley focused on the multiple health problems of our local community.”

E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/05_01_03/page_35.html