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FIU’s Health Disparities Initiative, funded by NIMHD and led by Mario de la Rosa and Andrés Gil, supports research and training in health disparities for the next generation of public health researchers and medical students.

A lack of diversity in clinical trials has cascading societal implications. FIU nurse scientist Trudy Gaillard leads a National Institute on Aging-funded study to understand how to boost older adult research participation The goal is to create an online statewide registry where diverse older adults can find clinical trials.

Childhood cancer patients tend to have limited access to precision medicine clinical trials and treatments that could potentially save their lives. Researcher Diana Azzam is identifying specific biomarkers among minority populations that can be targeted using FDA-approved drugs. Azzam is project lead on an NIMHD-funded study as part of the RCMI led by Eric Wagner to reduce health disparities in childhood cancer patients from minority populations.

The Research Center in a Minority Institution at FIU (FIU-RCMI), led by Eric Wagner, has received $33.4M over the past six years to support health disparities research on multiple diseases such as HIV, Alzheimer’s and childhood cancer.

Researchers Shanna Burke and Sabrina Sales Martinez are among the first to examine microbiota, metabolome, sleep, stress and cognition measures to identify early risk factors of Alzheimer’s disease linked to gut health.

The Center for Translational Science, under the leadership of Director Stephen Black, is an integral part of FIU’s efforts preparing the next generation of scientists and doctors through a robust focus on training doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows.