University of 糖心Vlog传媒 and Meharry Medical College Launch PECIR Program, Driving Research Collaborations
June 9, 2021 鈥� In December 2020, the University of 糖心Vlog传媒, Meharry Medical College and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare announced a collaboration to increase the number of Black primary care doctors across the state and increase research collaborations among the institutions.
In accordance with this effort, the University of 糖心Vlog传媒 and Meharry Medical College created the Program to Enhance Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Research (PECIR). The purpose of PECIR is to stimulate innovative, interdisciplinary, team-based research that involves investigators from Meharry Medical College (MMC) and the University of 糖心Vlog传媒 (UofM).
The inaugural PECIR Call for Applications was released in spring 2021. The $50,000 research award is designed to promote new lines of research and provide seed money to give rise to future external funding opportunities.
A virtual Lightning Talk session was held in April to establish and grow collaborative interdisciplinary research networking between faculty members from both institutions. Faculty interested in applying for the PECIR research awards were given the opportunity to share a three-minute presentation about their research and research interests.
Ultimately, 11 teams comprised of faculty from both institutions responded to the inaugural PECIR call and six were selected for funding.
The six selected projects and their principal investigators from the two institutions are:
- 鈥淎ssessing Vaccine Hesitancy for Flu, HPV and COVID-19 Vaccines in Tennessee鈥� 鈥� Seok Won Jin, PhD (UofM), and Jennifer Cunningham-Erves, PhD, MPH, MAEd, MS and Maureen Sanderson, PhD, MPH (MMC)
- 鈥淚nform Future Delivery of Trauma Informed Care in Community-Based HIV Service Organizations (CBO), Faith-Based Organizations (FBO), the Local Health Department (HD), and Federally Qualified Health Care Centers (FQHC)鈥� 鈥� Latrice Pichon, PhD (UofM) and L. Lauren Brown, PhD, LCSW (MMC)
- 鈥淎 Focus Group Study of the Communication and Educational Needs of Parents and Patients with Sickle Cell Disease or Sickle Cell Traits鈥� 鈥� Amanda Young, PhD (UofM), and Shyamali Mukherjee, PhD, MS (MMC)
- 鈥淓lucidating Mechanisms for the Sexually Dimorphic Response to Diet Induced Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome鈥� 鈥� Melissa Puppa, PhD (UofM), and Smita Misra, PhD, MS (MMC)
- 鈥淒iscovery of Exosome-based Molecular Biomarkers for Predicting Prostate Cancer Impending Metastasis鈥� 鈥� Yongmei Wang, PhD (UofM), and Zhenbang Chen, PhD, MS (MMC)
- 鈥淓liminating Socially-Driven Infant Obesity Disparities in Minority Communities of 糖心Vlog传媒 and Nashville: A Community-Based Intervention鈥� 鈥� Angela Antipova, PhD (UofM), and Dr. Flora Ukoli, MD, MPH (MMC)
Funded projects and teams will have one year to build preliminary data, with the intention of the pursuit of external funding to continue the development of their work.
鈥淭his is the start of an exciting longer-term research partnership between our two institutions,鈥� said Dr. Jasbir Dhaliwal, executive vice president of Research & Innovation at the University of 糖心Vlog传媒. 鈥淪cience is inherently collaborative, and it is imperative that we pool our research capabilities to tackle the big health and medical challenges facing our communities. It is my belief that these research teams will be successful in attracting significant competitive research support from the National Institutes of Health given the focus of the projects.鈥�
Meharry鈥檚 vice president for Research and Innovation Dr. Anil Shanker added, 鈥淭hese initial pilot research projects between Meharry and UofM faculty members will jump-start promising collaborations with potential impact on health equity in the populations we serve.鈥�
The lightning talks in April showcased the research of 19 faculty from the University of 糖心Vlog传媒 and 18 from Meharry Medical College.
For more information on this collaboration or on the PECIR Program, contact Dr. Nichole Saulsberry-Scarboro at tnslsbrr@memphis.edu or Jared Elzey at jelzey@mmc.edu.