The Research Core of the USF/Moffitt Transdisciplinary Center of Excellence to Address Cancer Health Disparities will serve as the hub responsible for connecting and overseeing the proposed research activities and fostering new projects. Our overarching theme is to generate new knowledge aimed at understanding and addressing cancer-related health disparities among underserved and minority populations. We will do so with an emphasis on 1) understanding the bio-behavioral etiology of cancer-related health disparities, and 2) developing and testing the safety and efficacy of novel transdisciplinary interventions to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, these disparities. We propose to establish this collaborative enterprise based on similar programs that have been developed and implemented in the two respective institutions to address cancer-related health disparities. Specifically, this effort builds on the significant success of research conducted as part of our existing Tampa Bay Community Cancer Network (PI: Meade C, NIH-NCI), Patient Navigator Program (PI: Roetzeim R, NIH-NCI), and the FAMU-MCC Partnership Research and Training Grant (PIs: Odedina F and Kumar NB, DOD). Disentangling the myriad determinants of a disease such as cancer, within the context of minority health or health disparities, requires a transdisciplinary approach. Transdisciplinary approaches draw on concepts from multiple scientific disciplines to develop a novel, integrated perspective from which to conduct scientific investigation. Advances in transdisciplinary research on cancer health disparities may be impeded if socio-behavioral and bio-molecular determinants of disparities are not explored in an integrated fashion. We therefore propose to use a socio-biologic organizing model that encourages a multilevel, integrative perspective in the study of cancer disparities (Gibbons et al, 2007). By utilizing the existing research infrastructure of the Moffitt Cancer Center's scientific programs, core services and shared resources to facilitate and strengthen collaborations between Moffitt-based investigators and investigators in the USF Colleges of Medicine, Public Health, and Arts and Sciences, this collaborative Research Core of the USF/Moffitt Transdisciplinary Center of Excellence to Address Cancer Health Disparities is poised to address and eliminate cancer-related health disparities.
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