Grant to support SACS and RCMI research on health disparities
The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) has awarded the School of Applied Computational Sciences (SACS) a RCMI supplement grant of $363,750. The award will help Meharry Medical College address health disparities through fostering collaborations between SACS faculty and their colleagues in the RCMI Program in Health Disparities Research.
SACS faculty support research at the Center for the Study of Social Determinants of Health, the Clinical and Translational Research Center and other areas of the College. This funding will lead to new partnerships by helping them understand and address the computing needs of RCMI researchers at Meharry.
“Our on-campus collaborations include applying our data science expertise and computing resources to assist in genetic research and understanding health disparities,” says Dr. Qingguo Wang, chair, Computer Science and Data Science Department, and principal investigator for the grant. “We look forward to collaborating with our friends at the RCMI, led by Dr. Samuel Adunyah, to address health disparities.”
Dr. Adunyah, chair, Department of Biochemistry and Cancer Biology, served as the contact principal investigator for the grant.
The grant also provides funding for data science education and training for researchers, postdoctoral fellows, or students in Meharry’s RCMI program.
“In addition to our research, we hope to help more Meharrians learn to apply data science to their work. NIMHD’s inclusion of educational support is important to that outreach,” says Wang.
In addition to Dr. Wang and Dr. Adunyah, Dr. Ashutosh Singhal, medical research, development and strategy director; Dr. Aize Cao, associate professor, biomedical data science; and Dr. Vibhuti Gupta, assistant professor, computer science and data science; are co-investigators for the grant.
