RESEARCH CORE1.
0 Specific Aims The University of South Alabama (USA) serves a large population of African Americans, and otherminority groups including a growing population of Hispanics in the Gulf Coast region of the US (1). In commonwith the rest of the nation, these minority populations generally have lower socioeconomic status compared totheir white counterparts. This clearly has significant health consequences across a spectrum of diseases,including cancer, obesity, asthma and hypertension (3, 18). Historical events, like 'Tuskegee' and otherinherent mistrust has caused communities most at risk for health disparities to be apathetic to research (19,20). However, advances in biomedical research and the unraveling of the genome have brought us muchcloser to personalized genomic and proteomic medicine. Therefore, the field of health disparities researchshould incorporate the elements of basic science research that will help understand the pathophysiologicprocesses that contribute to health disparities, and how genetic susceptibility interacts with behavioral,nutritional, pharmacological and environmental variables in the perpetuation of health status differentialsexperienced by minority populations (2 -25). Moreover, the socioeconomic, environmental, communication,and educational factors that haunt at-risk populations require novel research strategies to elucidate solutions tohealth disparities (4,,2,6). Therefore, a research strategy that advances the elucidation of both biologicalmechanisms and socio-cultural factors is required to eliminate health disparities in African American and lowincomepopulations. With that realization, the overall goal of the Research Core is to Provide Academic andLogistical Support to Promote Multidisciplinary Research in Minority Health and Health Disparities atUSASpecific objectives of the research core are:1) To promote the generation of data from hypothesis driven, multidisciplinary research projects focusedon issues of importance to the health of African American and low-income groups.2) To expand the cohort of investigators conducting innovative health disparities related research throughseveral mechanisms.3) To critically review health disparities related research conducted in the U.S. so that appropriateresearch questions can be formulated to impact the health of our community.
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