NCCU EXPORT Center for Excellence

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Funds are requested to develop an EXPORT Center of Excellence at North Carolina Central University that focuses on minority health disparities through partnerships with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University Medical Center and Wake Forest University School of Medicine. A common theme of the proposed research projects is that health disparities in the African American community are the result of complex gene-environment interactions such that psychosocial and environmental stresses impact individuals with a susceptible genotype and lead to a increased incidence and severity of cardiovascular disease, substance abuse and recidivism, and cancer. These projects will be addressed in three separate research core components using a combination of human population studies and animal models. The research will be supported by three separate Shared Resource Cores: Bioinformatics, Genomics, and Animal Resources & Transgenic Genotyping. The overall planning and day to day function of the NCCU EXPORT Center will be directed by an Administrative core which will in turn be closely associated with a Community Outreach Core and an Education and Training Core. The Community Outreach core will have the multipronged mission of developing NCCU-based programs for community health and disease risk education and for coordinating the use of NCCU student and staff in the conduct of cooperative research activities. The Education and Training Core will oversee laboratory and classroom training of minority students from high school through the Bachelor's degree and the development of a doctoral program at NCCU in the area of Biomedical Sciences. It is anticipated that the plan that is presented will result in the formation of a model HBU-centered EXPORT center that addresses important minority health issues through active molecular genetics research and through the creation and implementation of research, training and community outreach activities