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The three grants are:

$15 million to establish an Endowment for Health Disparities Research at Meharry Medical College: This endowment award will establish two professorships and a chair to enhance the college’s ability to recruit nationally recognized clinical scientists. These scientists will then lead development of specialized health disparity centers at Meharry. The Endowed Professor in Reproductive Biology will direct the creation of the Meharry Center for Research in Reproduction; the Endowed Professor in Oral Biology will direct the Center for Minority Oral Health Disparities at Meharry Medical College; and the Endowed Chair in Cell and Molecular Biology will direct the establishment of a Department of Cell, Developmental and Molecular Biology at the college. Additionally, the grant will fund the establishment of an endowed intramural research program to enable junior faculty and post-doctoral researchers to obtain research data for research grant submissions. The grant is funded over a period of three years, and Maupin is the principal investigator.

$4.3 million to establish the Meharry EXPORT Center for Health Disparities: Funded by the NIH’s “Project EXPORT: Excellence in Partnerships for Community Outreach, Research on Health Disparities and Training,” this grant will create the Meharry EXPORT Center for Health Disparities. The center will foster and support the conduct of a wide range of applied research activities focused on the elimination of health disparities. Research that increases understanding of the effects of society, economics, culture, behavior and biology on the health of African Americans will be promoted. Specifically, the grant will fund the strengthening of the research infrastructure at Meharry through the addition of new research faculty members, administrative support and structured processes to integrate research, prevention, health education, health maintenance and treatment. This grant is funded over a period of four years and the principal investigator is Dr. PonJola Coney, dean of Meharry’s School of Medicine and senior vice president for health affairs.

$7.7 million to establish the Meharry Center for Health Disparities Research in HIV/AIDS: This grant will enable the college to recruit a nationally recognized clinical scientist to lead the new Meharry Center for Health Disparities Research in HIV/AIDS, along with additional leading faculty to conduct HIV/AIDS research. The funding also will cover costs associated with renovating an existing site at Meharry to house the new center. This project includes collaboration with Vanderbilt University and the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. The grant is funded over a period of six years and principal investigator is Dr. David Grandison, interim chair of Meharry’s Department of Internal Medicine.

Meharry Medical College is the nation’s largest private, independent historically black institution dedicated solely to educating health science professionals. Since its founding in 1876, it has been a leading educator of African-American physicians, dentists and biomedical scientists. The College is particularly well known for its emphasis on the special primary health care needs of minorities, the poor and the disadvantaged of America. Its graduates are respected nationwide for their commitment to underserved communities.