COVID-19 Research in States with Rural and Underserved Populations: Highlights from the IDeA Program - February 26

The Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Program strengthens research capacity in states that receive lower levels of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program’s grantees have been conducting invaluable research and this webinar, hosted by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), will feature three examples of the important work.

The IDeA Program: Supporting Research and Research Capacity Building Where It Counts the Most
Ming Lei, PhD
Director, Division for Research Capacity Building
National Institute of General Medical Sciences

IDeA State COVID-19 Registries in the National COVID Cohort Collaborative: Ensuring Inclusion of Underserved Populations and Engagement of Investigators 
Sally L. Hodder, MD
Director, West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Associate Vice President, Clinical and Translational Research
Professor of Medicine, WVU Biomedical Research Center

Protecting Our Communities: COBRE Research Partnerships with Underserved Communities During COVID-19
Alexandra Adams, MD, PhD
Director and Principal Investigator
Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity (CAIRHE)
Montana State University

SARS-CoV-2 Re-infections Case Study
Subhash C. Verma, PhD
Associate Professor and Director, Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Program
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
University of Nevada, Reno

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Ming Lei, PhD

Director, Division for Research Capacity Building

National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Ming Lei, Ph.D., is the Director of the Division for Research Capacity Building at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).  He oversees the Institute’s research capacity-building programs, which include the Institutional Development Award (IDeA), Support of Competitive Research (SCORE), Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH), and the Science Education Partnerships Awards (SEPA). Prior to joining the NIGMS in 2018, he held positions at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Sally L. Hodder, MD

Director, West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute; Associate Vice President, Clinical and Translational Research; Professor of Medicine

WVU Biomedical Research Center

Alexandra Adams, MD, PhD

Director and Principal Investigator

Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity (CAIRHE), Montana State University

Dr. Alexandra Adams is the director of the Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity (CAIRHE), a phase II NIH COBRE at Montana State University. She is professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health where she also practiced family medicine and pediatric obesity treatment. She has directed multiple clinical trials, received over $40 million of NIH and foundation funding, and has over 60 peer-reviewed publications. The foundation for her leadership and research has been community-based participatory research (CBPR), working in partnership with underserved communities to understand and solve health challenges using both scientific rigor and crucial community knowledge.

Subhash C. Verma, PhD

Associate Professor and Director, Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Program; Department of Microbiology and Immunology

University of Nevada, Reno

Subhash Verma, PhD is a virologist in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. His laboratory works on various DNA and RNA viruses including tumor-inducing human herpesviruses and respiratory viruses, human coronavirus, OC43, NL63, and SARS-CoV-2. He is involved in genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in the state of the Nevada through analyzing the genomic sequences of SARS-CoV-2 virus circulating in COVID-19 patients. His group, along with the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory, has identified distinct mutations in the viral genome and molecularly characterized the SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences from COVID-19 patients with re-infection.

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