United Methodist-related Meharry Medical College received a $21.4 million federal research grant to address health disparities among minorities. UMNS photos courtesy of Meharry Medical College.

By Kathy Gilbert and Barbara Dunlap-Berg*
Oct. 30, 2009 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)

Meharry Medical College has received a $21.4 million grant to turn clinical discoveries about health disparities into cures.

The federal grant is the largest in the college’s history and will be used to establish a clinic and research center, said Russell E. Poland, vice president for research at Meharry, a historically black college related to The United Methodist Church.

“Most drugs on the market work for only one-third to one-half of the population. Treatments are not meant to fit all groups and all people. We want to look at how ethnicity, race, economic status and other factors influence access to care, diagnosis and treatment,” Poland said.

The long-term goal, he noted, “is to tailor diagnosis and treatment to the individual—personalized medicine.”

Meharry has long focused on health disparities research because African Americans are disproportionately affected by diseases such as breast cancer, prostate cancer and HIV/AIDS, said Dr. Wayne J. Riley, Meharry president and chief executive officer.

The National Institutes of Health will give out more than $75 million over the next five years to help four minority colleges expand their research and facilities. The universities' work will focus on health disparities among minorities. About 15 higher education institutions competed for the money.

New drug possible

The grant will help Dr. James Hildreth, director of the Meharry Center for Health Disparities, who is working on a vaccine to block the HIV virus. Admitting “a vaccine for HIV may be a long time coming,” Hildreth said his team is working on a microbicide to block “transmission of the virus.”

Hildreth believes the drug he is developing could become available within five years.

“The HIV/AIDS problem . . . affects people of color,” Hildreth said. “Being at a medical school like Meharry, which has traditionally served the needs of African Americans, there is a sense of pride that we might be part of a solution.”

Funds will be used to establish the Meharry Clinical and Translational Research Center, which the university described as a “center without walls” comprising the Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research, the Center for Women’s Health Research and the Participant and Clinical Interactions Resource.

Through the center, doctors and scientists will conduct health disparities research needed to take a basic discovery and use it to create tests or drugs that help eliminate those disparities.

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“Meharry has an exemplary record of addressing health disparities that disproportionally affect those from disadvantaged backgrounds,” said Dr. Barbara Alving, National Center for Research Resources director.

Supported by United Methodists through the Black College Fund, Meharry Medical College is the nation’s largest private, independent, historically black academic health center dedicated solely to educating minority and other health professionals.

*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service. Dunlap-Berg is an editor for United Methodist Communications, which operates UMNS.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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