California State University, Fresno has been awarded a five-year, $4.5 million federal grant to develop a state-of-the-art biomedical research facility in which researchers can take advantage of new technologies to research health issues.
The university is one of 19 in the country – and one of two in California – to receive the award from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, a center of the National Institutes of Health.
The grant will fund the Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions (RIMI) program, which builds research opportunities at institutions that offer degrees in life sciences and other health areas to a predominantly minority student body. The award seeks to better integrate teaching and research.
“The RIMI grant will involve Fresno State faculty and students in cutting-edge research to address serious health issues that impact our community,” said Dr. Lynnette Zelezny, a psychology professor who will
direct training.
“I am excited and proud to be part of this unique collaborative effort to address health disparities and to support future research training and infrastructure at Fresno State.”
The biomedical research will be led by chemistry professor Dr. Krish Krishnan. Biology professors Dr. Alejandro Calderon-Urrea and Dr. Jason Bush are the other core leaders.
“Securing this grant allows us to develop biomedical research facilities and acquire instruments on par with any other world-class research institution,” Krishnan said. “The facilities will allow us to compete for and seek additional funding from agencies that were previously out of reach.”
Instruments at the facility will support research in the areas of proteomics, functional genomics and bioinformatics.
The facility also will support the research of several Fresno State faculty, including Krishnan and Dr. Alam Hasson in chemistry (inter-relationship between air pollution, viral infection and asthma in the Central Valley); Dr. Jason Bush in biology (effects of pesticides on breast cancer in Hispanic farm workers); and Dr. Amanda Mortimer in psychology (cultural differences in marital care-giving interactions in Alzheimer’s disease).
Fresno State will collaborate with several renowned research facilities, including UCSF-Fresno, Queens University, California Cancer Registry (Fresno), Center for Comparative Medicine, UC Davis Medical Center and the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla.
For more information about the RIMI grant, visit www.rimicsufresno.org <http://www.rimicsufresno.org/> .
