ADMINISTRATIVE CORE Texas Southern University (TSU), the nation's second largest Historically Black College and University is a comprehensive doctoral Institution of Emerging Excellence that was recently designated by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as an institution with ?high research activity (R2).? Training over 8,500 academically and ethnically diverse students each year with ~709 faculty members, TSU is a top producer of quality health professionals and future generation of talented biomedical research scientists focused on addressing health disparity concerns of the large underrepresented minority (URM) and underserved community within our geographical location in the historic Third Ward area in city of Houston. Faculty expertise in biomedical research at TSU has a long history dating back to the 1986 when the University was awarded its first NIH-supported Research Centers for Minority Institutions (RCMI), 5-year infrastructure grant , where pharmacokinetics studies were utilized to evaluate drug-drug interactions of anti-AIDS drugs which led to a successful Phase 1 clinical trial funded by NIAID. The Administrative Core (ADC) of the proposed Center for Biomedical and Minority Health Research (CBMHR) will build upon the existing structure of the current RCMI Program (9/26/2014 ? 5/31/2020), which resulted in: 93 publications, 12 awarded grants, 15 patents/submissions and several presentations at international and national meetings. Moreover, the currently-funded ADC successfully launched a structured faculty mentoring program that significantly contributed to the productivity and development of junior faculty, resulting in several grant awards (including NIH and NSF) and publications. Upon renewal, the ADC will build upon current capability and expand its function to provide administrative leadership, oversight, accountability, integrative coordination, communication, mentorship, programmatic assessment and evaluation for all CBMHR cores [Research Infrastructure Core (RIC), Investigator Development Core (IDC), Community Engagement Core (CEC)], and activities.
The specific aims of the ADC are: 1) Provide integrated administrative oversight, logistical support, centralized resources for CBMHR cores/activities and research projects; 2) Develop and deploy career enhancement activities for junior faculty and postdocs; 3) Increase productivity of TSU investigators by fostering synergy through the provision of centralized activities and establishment of a rich collaborative environment and 4) Deploy a rigorous evaluation and continuous improvement program to maximize CBMHR impact. The unique and collective strengths of CBMHR cores, innovative research projects, excellent resources and structured career enhancement program will make it a novel synergistic center, a first- of-its-kind (at TSU and in the TMC) that will provide comprehensive, integrated and centralized infrastructure and high quality capabilities for advanced biomedical research innovation and synergistic community engagement that directly impact minority health and encompass the different aspects of biomedical discovery and preclinical drug development. This U54 funding is critical to help to synergize research infrastructure capabilities to bring more young minority investigators into the mainstream biomedical research and maximally provide the necessary support to our investigators that are addressing the pressing health concerns and needs of the communities we serve.
