target disparities

N.C. Central University’s Julius L. Chambers Biomedical/Biotechnology Research Institute (BBRI) has received a National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Exploratory Center of Excellence grant for $5.7 million.

Originally funded in 2002 as Project EXPORT, this is a five-year competitive renewal of the longest-funded National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant at BBRI.

Research involving health disparities – the gaps between the health status of racial and ethnic minorities compared with the population as a whole – is explicitly part of BBRI’s mission, and the projects funded by the NIH grant all focus on cardio-metabolic diseases that disproportionately affect African-Americans.

The projects will be administered by the newly named Center for Translational Health Equality Research (CTHER), led by K. Sean Kimbro, Ph.D., director of BBRI, and Mildred A. Pointer, Ph.D., FAHA, associate professor.

Pointer emphasized the translational aspect of the projects — finding ways to use the research to directly improve health outcomes. “We really wanted to combine expertise from the various disciplines to make sure that our research conclusions can be directly applied in North Carolina communities,” she said.

Duke gains 3

new trustees

Three new members joined the Duke University Board of Trustees on July 1, the university announced Monday.

• Beginning a six-year term is Jeffrey Vinik, founder of the Boston-based Vinik Asset Management. Vinik also owns the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning and the Arena Football League’s Tampa Bay Storm, and is a minority owner of Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox.

Vinik received a bachelor’s degree in engineering and economics from Duke in 1981, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1985.

• Kaveh Danesh, the undergraduate young trustee, will serve one year as an observer and two years as a voting member.

A Seattle native, Danesh graduated from Duke in 2012 with a degree in mathematics and minors in English, philosophy, Chinese, chemistry and neuroscience. In September, he will be a Fulbright Scholar in China, where he will apply mathematical models to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment in rural villages.

As an undergraduate, Danesh served two years as student government vice president for academic affairs and held positions on 15 strategic university committees, three of which he created to bridge the gap between students and faculty.

• Dr. Malik Burnett, originally from Montego Bay, Jamaica, was selected as a young trustee by the Graduate and Professional Student Council. He will serve as an observer for one year, then as a voting member for one year. He is currently a general surgery resident at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine.

Burnett earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Duke in 2007. As an undergraduate, Burnett served as president of Duke’s Black Student Alliance and co-founded a student group that helped educate Durham middle and high school students culturally and academically.