Dr. William Coleman Award

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The Coleman Award review committee selected 7 research projects for FY22 funding. A description of the recipients and their research projects follows. These projects demonstrate the NIMHD DIRs ability to leverage existing NIH investments in ongoing cohort studies, as well as NIMHD-DIR generated data sources. Jessica Fernandez, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Project Title: Racial Discrimination and Chronic Disease: The Mediating Effects of Sensitivity to Daily Stress. This study will examine whether sensitivity to daily stressors mediates the association between racial discrimination and chronic disease across racial/ethnic groups, whether coping strategies affect these relationships, and whether open-ended descriptions of coping strategies differ among 2,000 (500 Black Americans, 500 Hispanic Americans, 500 Asian Americans, 500 White Americans) U.S. adults who are nationally representatives on gender, age, education, and self-identified race/ethnicity from Qualtrics Panels. Participants sensitivity to daily stress will be captured using self-reported and behavioral responses to a series of scenarios describing daily stressors and measures of racial discrimination, chronic disease, typical daily stress, and coping strategies. Lauren Hurwitz, PhD, MHS, Postdoctoral Fellow, National Cancer Institute. Project Title: Serum Organochlorine Insecticide Levels and Risk of Aggressive Prostate Cancer in African Men. There are marked geographic and racial disparities in aggressive prostate cancer, with rates particularly high among men of African descent. African American men in the U.S. and men from West Africa have also been shown to have increased exposure to organochlorine pesticides (OCPs). Dr. Hurwitz aims to conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of OCP concentrations in controls with both serum OCP measurements and GWAS data to identify proxy measures of exposure to OCPs. This project will facilitate expansion of their research to other African descent study populations without direct, costly measurement of serum OCP levels. Jielu Lin, PhD, Staff Scientist, National Human Genome Research Institute. Project Title: Genetic and Social Network Correlates of Rheumatoid Arthritis Outcomes in Hispanic Populations. Dr. Lin and her team aim to recruit 100 Hispanic households affected by rheumatoid arthritis. Genetic, family network and psychosocial data will be collected. The analysis will assess: 1) how known genetic risk loci are associated with RA severity; 2) how family networks are associated with RA-related health communication and rheumatology visits, which in turn impact RA severity; and 3) how family networks are associated with RA-attributable functional limitations, depressive symptoms and anxiety. The long-term goal of this research is to first, help identify the genetic risk loci that may be candidates for future social epigenomic study of RA in Hispanic populations, and second, aid the development of interventions that are tailored to the familys social context to facilitate health communication and encourage health service use in Hispanic communities. Natasha Pacheco, PhD, Post-doctoral Fellow, National Institute on Aging. Project Title: Longitudinal Gene Expression and DNA Methylation Changes Associated with Frailty Progression in a Diverse Urban, Community-Dwelling Cohort. Dr. Pacheco will use RNA sequencing and the Illumina Methylation EPIC chip array to identify global transcriptomic and DNA methylation changes, respectively, associated with longitudinal frailty progression in middle-aged adults. They will investigate how demographics (race, sex, and poverty status) and social determinants of health influence longitudinal transcriptomic and epigenomic changes associated with frailty progression. Lilianna, Phan, PhD, MPH, MS, Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Project Title: Developing the Positive Affect for Cigars (PAC) Scale among African American Young Adults. Cigar smoking is disproportionately prevalent among African American individuals, and varies by cigar type, with African American young adults (ages 18-30 years) having the highest prevalence of little cigar/cigarillo smoking than other racial/ethnic young adults. The specific aims are to: 1) explore beliefs about cigar smoking by cigar type among African American young adults, and 2) develop a self-report measure of positive affect towards cigar smoking by cigar type for African American young adults. Dana Verhoeven, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, National Cancer Institute. Project Title: Care Coordination for Multimorbidity: A Mixed Methods Study to Address Health Disparities. The aims of this mixed methods study are to: 1) understand clinical care team composition and care coordination challenges for cancer survivors with at least one additional chronic condition in the 12-months following cancer diagnosis, and 2) explore in-depth care coordination challenges and mechanisms that contribute to health disparities experienced by cancer survivors that self-identify as a racial/ethnic minority individual. They will use a rapid two-phase explanatory sequential design where findings regarding clinical care team composition obtained from a quantitative survey of cancer survivors (n=379) in phase one will inform the sampling frame for qualitative semi-structured interviews (n=20) in phase two. Phase two activities will enable deeper exploration of the most common and impactful care coordination challenges and mechanisms. Annemarie Wentzel, PhD, MSc, postdoctoral fellow, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Project Title: The Effect of Psychosocial and Physiologic Stress on the Development of B Cell Failure in African Immigrants with Abnormal Glucose Tolerance. Abnormal glucose tolerance (Abnl-GT) combines diabetes and prediabetes into a single term and occurs due to an imbalance between insulin resistance (IR) and -cell function. In African American individuals, Abnl-GT is most often due to IR-related obesity. However, data emerging from the Africans in America cohort reveals that the majority of African immigrants with Abnl-GT are nonobese and have -cell-failure. Most nonobese individuals are not identified as at-risk consequently, they are usually diagnosed only after the onset of clinical complications. Hence, preventable disease progression occurs due to late diagnosis of Abnl-GT--cell-failure. Working with African immigrants, Dr. Wentzel and her teams primary goal is to assess the metabolic consequences in the Abnl-GT--cell-failure group vs normal-GT (NGT), and to examine and compare the psychosocial and physiological stress precipitants in the Abnl-GT--cell-failure group to the NGT and then to the Abnl-GT-IR group. If the psychosocial and metabolic profiles are worse in Abnl-GT--cell-failure than the NGT group, this will reveal a previously unappreciated public health problem, risk underestimation and the associated delays in diagnosis contributing to increased risk of more severe disease and complications.