The University of Oklahoma has received a multi-million dollar grant for medical workforce development and to expand its research on various complex diseases.
Under the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program, the National Institutes of Health gave $18.7 million grant to OU Health Sciences Center to expand biomedical research on diseases like cancer and diabetes.
The program, which engages a statewide network of universities and colleges, including researchers from the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, is led by the Health Sciences Center.
“This grant enhances the number of students who go to college, choose a discipline in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and graduate with a STEM degree. Then we can mentor them as they go on to become health professionals or biomedical researchers,” said Darrin Akins, a professor in the OU College of Medicine.
Akins further said that the program would help the Science Center to build a pipeline for improving health and decreasing healthcare disparities in the commonwealth.
The program receives an additional $250,000 per year support from Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
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