Building Data Science Capacity to Enhance Research and Diversity at a Historically Black University

SUMMARY – OVERALL COMPONENT The Florida-California Cancer Research, Education & Engagement (CaRE2) Health Equity is proposed by the University of Florida (UF), Florida A&M University (FAMU) and the University of Southern California-Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center (USC-NCCC) to eliminate cancer health disparities in Florida, California and nationally. The long term goals of the CaRE2 center are to reduce cancer disparities in Blacks and Latinos, to train and increase the pool of underrepresented Black and Latino scientists conducting health disparity research, to increase research capacity at FAMU, and to increase cancer disparity research at UF and USC-NCCC. The bi-coastal location offers access to uniquely diverse populations of Blacks and Latinos, facilitating in an unprecedented way, the study of cancer disparities in these incredibly heterogeneous populations. Specifically, the center will focus on studying relevant issues and serving the needs of: (1) Black subpopulations, including American-born, African-born and Caribbean-born Blacks; and (2) Latino subpopulations including Mexican- Americans, Caribbean Latinos, Central and South Americans. This triad brings together investigators and institutions in the two US states that currently have the highest cancer incidence and mortality. The main scientific focus of the center is translational disparities research among heterogeneous minority populations focusing on cancers known for high mortality. We propose to coalesce expertise, infrastructure and share resources in support of 6 innovative translational research projects focused on understanding the biological basis of disparities in Black and Latino populations, capturing the wide heterogeneity within these two groups, with two foundational projects focusing on pancreas cancer (one full, one pilot) and one full project focusing on prostate cancer (Aim 1). Under the leadership of the Research Education Core, we propose to train 100 Black and Latino investigators, including students and early stage investigators (ESI), in translational cancer health disparity research (Aim 2). Existing community partnerships in the Outreach Core will be leveraged to disseminate findings in the Black and Latino community, educate about pancreas and prostate cancer, and improve participation in biomedical research (Aim 3). Finally, the Planning and Evaluation Core will implement a systematic planning and evaluation plan to improve Center effectiveness using innovative strategies (Aim 4). All research projects will be facilitated and enriched by resources and approaches provided by the Tissue Modeling Core and Bioinformatics, Statistical and Methodological Core. All CaRE2 Center’s activities will be centralized and overseen by the Administrative Core. The FAMU-UF-USC partnership is ideally suited to achieve these aims. Both UF and FAMU have worked closely together addressing cancer disparities in Florida Blacks for the last 4 years. USC-NCCC provides complementary and synergistic expertise in cancer disparities research, research training for the Latino population, and expertise in developing culturally-sensitive tools to reduce cancer disparities among Latinos.