Priority-Setting Stage Pilot Project #1 (Drs. Davidson and Hsieh) is fully conceived, planned and staffed. Consequently this project will be implemented immediately upon funding. Pilot project #2 will be selected during Year 1 by a Priority-setting process described as follows. We have selected an Internal Advisory Committee comprised of 6 cancer investigators: The two Lead Pis plus 2 additional members from each institution: Alec J. Davidson, PhD is an assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, and a member of the Neuroscience Institute and Circadian Rhythms and Sleep Disorders Program. Dr. Davidson has been pursuing research on the relationship between circadian clocks and cancer for 4 years, and is currently PI of an R21 grant from NCI to investigate this issue in a rat model of hepatocellular carcinoma. He is the MSM Lead-Pi of this grant application. Sandra Harris-Hooker, PhD is the Vice President and Associate Dean for Sponsored Research Administration at MSM, and the Director of the Minority Biomedical Research Support Program at Morehouse School of Medicine, a program dedicated to the development of future biomedical research scholars. With professional training in Cell Biology, and postgraduate emphasis in Cardiovascular Pathology, Dr. Harris- Hooker has worked in the area of vascular cell biology for over 20 years, studying enddthelial dysfunctions involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. While her primary research area is vascular biology, she is also interested in ways by which to enhance the integration of basic, clinical and population-based research in order to address disparities in health. Dr. Harris-Hooker has been on the MSM faculty since 1983. Daniel Blumenthal, MD, MPH, is Chairman of the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine and Principal Investigator of the Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center (PRC). The mission of the PRC is to advance scientific knowledge in the field of prevention of disease in African American and other minority communities and to disseminate new information and strategies of prevention. Specifically, Dr. Blumenthal is PI of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research network within the PRC, whose mission it is to accelerate the adoption of evidence-based cancer prevention and control in minority communities.
