RESEARCH CORE: The Penn-Cheyney EXPORT Center (PCEC) Research Core (Core B) will focus initially on the determinants and ramifications of obesity and obesity-related diseases, and aspects of health with marked disparities for African American and Latinos. The Research Core (Core B) will be led by Shiriki Kumanyika, PhD, RD, MPH, an established, NlIt-funded researcher in the field of obesity as it relates to minority populations. The overall goal is to enhance, from an interdisciplinary base, the impact on understanding and reducing obesity-related health disparities across the life span, of current or future externally-funded research at the Penn and Cheyney.
Specific aims are to: 1) recruit and retain externallyfunded investigators whose work relates directly or potentially to obesity, obesity determinants, or obesity related diseases; 2) create a scholarly interchange among these investigators that will lead to the development of new hypotheses related to health disparities and that take advantage of data or study populations available from projects in the core, separately and jointly, with a particular emphasis on incorporating environmental variables; 3) provide an infrastructure that will facilitate the testing of new hypotheses in pilot studies and, as appropriate, in new, externally funded projects; 4) facilitate collaborations with investigators funded by the Pilot Studies core (Core H) or the Training core (Core G) to develop new applications for external funding; 5) facilitate translation of selected research results into participatory action research projects to be tested in community or clinical settings; 6) facilitate participation of community members in ongoing research projects; 7) facilitate matches for appropriate minority supplements attached to research projects in this core. Mechanisms will include seminars, discussion groups, website and listerv postings of literature highlights and funding opportunities, mentoring, and development of grant applications. This core will also aim to facilitate involvement of both Penn and Cheyney faculty and students in research activities and to facilitate the sharing of statistical data. Ten NIH-funded projects are presented in Core B. Principal Investigators of these projects are Full Members of this core. Those with related interests but no currently funded relevant projects are Affiliated Members. Recipients of PCEC pilot study funding are also to be included in this core.
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