Overall Research Progress Summary

The goals of the Institute of Biomedical and Health Disparities Research are to become a leader in biomedical and health disparities research; gain national prominence in one or more areas of health disparities research; and make major scientific discoveries that will lead to :

• The identification of novel genes or proteins involved in a disease process;

• The development of novel drugs and/or systems to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure a disease;

• The development of novel drug delivery systems to deliver small peptides and other biotechnology or products; or

•  The development of novel clinical diagnostic tests, and/or novel non-invasive techniques to help with early diagnosis of diseases.

The Institute operates an administration component and a mentored student development program. The administrative component is designed to deliver research support services and is organized to ensure a unified thrust toward the attainment of the goals and objectives of the Institute. The student development program provides graduate research assistantships to qualified students in conjunction with student enrichment and faculty mentoring activities. The Institute continues its efforts to recruit two new established investigators through the biomedical research faculty recruitment and development effort to develop and maintain a critical mass of biomedical researchers necessary to mount an aggressive, sustained and competitive research program. The Institute continues to build the research infrastructure Texas Southern University researchers need to make achieve the aforementioned research goals and outcomes by establishing and implementing core facilities in biosensor and biomarker Technology, computational research, molecular biology and tissue engineering and proteomics and functional genomics.