The National Institutes of Health have awarded North Carolina Central University a multi-million dollar grant to further study health disparities in minority communities.
The $16.3 million grant is the largest grant awarded to the school’s Biomedical Biotechnology Research (BBRI) Institute.
Director Deepak Kumar says the five-year grant will initially focus on three areas: breast cancer disparities; African-American men, stress and kidney disease; and diet-induced obesity.
“To have an institution to develop capabilities to address health disparities, I think this can have a major impact on NCCU’s capabilities," said Kumar.
Kumar says BBRI will partner with other schools and colleges across the NCCU campus and will look for mentoring and support from larger area universities including UNC-Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University and N.C. State.
University of North Carolina President Margaret Spellings said in a statement: "This major research grant will allow North Carolina Central University to engage in transformative research that examines health disparities and identifies real-world solutions that strengthen health care for minority populations throughout our state."
The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, a part of the NIH, will fund a total of seven institutions that are "historically committed to training populations underrepresented in science." The total grant is for $122 million.
The participating institutions include NCCU, Florida International University, Meharry Medical College, Northern Arizona University, Tuskegee University, University of Hawaii at Manoa and the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus.