Projects

Three projects are funded as part of the center. In a study led by the University of Miami, we will develop new statistical methods to predict risk of disparities, starting with cervical cancer. Vanderbilt University Medical Center will examine genetic risk factors contributing to health disparities and will characterize the relative contribution of genetic risk factors for asthma and pre-term birth, two conditions with substantial disparities in health outcomes among African Americans and Latinos. Vanderbilt University will lead a study of person-specific obesity treatment for African American and Latino Men.

Person-specific obesity treatment for middle-aged African American and Latino men

 Specific Aims: Develop and test a bank of gendered, culturally and contextually relevant person-specific messages to educate and motivate Latino men to engage in healthier eating and physical activity. These steps will mirror the qualitative ones we have used for the same age group of African American men Assess the effectiveness of a person-specific, randomized […]

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Precision Disparity Modeling of Cervical Cancer Survival Using Genomic and Social Determinants

Specific Aims: Explore how DNA methylation and other multilevel risk factors, including socio-environmental risk conditions moderate the influence of race on cervical cancer survival Identify patterns of disparity that are not race-based, but are driven by other underlying structure in the data Extend Disparity Driver Analysis (DDA) to allow for the identification of disparity drivers […]

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Using a Biobank and Electronic Health Records to Characterize Genome Variation Affecting Health Disparities

Specific Aims Systematically identify phenotypes with marked differences in lifetime risks between Americans of recent European and Americans of recent African ancestry Systematically identify and characterize the genetic factors contributing to phenotypes with significantly different lifetime risks among individuals from populations with different historical geographic ancestry. Comprehensively characterize the relative contribution of genetic risk factors […]

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