RESEARCH & INNOVATION

Meharry - Medical College
Innovation Centers / Community & Public Health / Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

The HDRCOE seeks to eliminate health disparities, promote health equity, inform public policy, and transform public health practice through the advancement of team science and the application of computational methods, geographic information systems, and spatial temporal analysis through an exposome lens.

The exposome considers the mechanisms and pathways through which the natural, built, social and policy environments affect personal health outcomes and population level disparities across space, time and the life course.

Visit the HDRCOE Website

Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence Administration Team

Josiah Ochieng, BS, MS, PhD

Professor
School of Medicine
Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

(615) 327-6119
jochieng@mmc.edu

Paul Juarez, PhD

Professor
School of Medicine
Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence, National Center for Medical Education Development & Research, Tennessee Area Health Education Centers Program

(615) 327-6992
pjuarez@mmc.edu

Terri Cody, MSPH

Fiscal Officer
Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

tcody@mmc.edu

Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence Research Team

Aramandla Ramesh, PhD

Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation, Professor of Cancer Biology and Pharmacology
Office for Research and Innovation
Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence, National Center for Medical Education Development & Research

(615) 327-6486
aramesh@mmc.edu

Anil Shanker, MS PhD

Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation & Professor of Biochemistry, Cancer Biology, Neuroscience, and Pharmacology
Office for Research and Innovation
Center for Women's Health Research, Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence, Center for Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience

(615) 327-6460
VP-Research@mmc.edu

Donald Alcendor, MS, PhD

Associate Professor
School of Medicine
Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research, Center for Women's Health Research, Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence, Tennessee Area Health Education Centers Program

(615) 327-6449
dalcendor@mmc.edu

Dorin Bogdan Borza, PhD

Assistant Professor
School of Medicine
Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

(615) 963-2833
dborza@mmc.edu

Deok-Soo Son, DVM, PhD

Associate Professor
School of Medicine
Center for Women's Health Research, Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

(615) 327-6189
dson@mmc.edu

Julie Gray, DDS, MA

Assistant Professor
School of Dentistry
Center for Health Policy, Center for the Study of Social Determinants of Health, Center for Educational Development & Support, Center for Advanced Scientific Computing and Innovation, Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

(615) 327-6076
jgray@mmc.edu

Josiah Ochieng, BS, MS, PhD

Professor
School of Medicine
Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

(615) 327-6119
jochieng@mmc.edu

Kathy Jefferson, DDS, MS

Associate Professor
School of Dentistry
Center for Health Policy, Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

(615) 327-6551
kjefferson@mmc.edu

Minu Chaudhuri, PhD

Professor
School of Medicine
Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

(615) 327-5726
mchaudhuri@mmc.edu

Pandu Gangula, PhD

Professor
School of Dentistry
Center for Women's Health Research, Center for Advanced Scientific Computing and Innovation, Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence, Center for Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience

(615) 327-6511
Pgangula@mmc.edu

Paul Juarez, PhD

Professor
School of Medicine
Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence, National Center for Medical Education Development & Research, Tennessee Area Health Education Centers Program

(615) 327-6992
pjuarez@mmc.edu

Ruth Bol, DDS, MPH

Assistant Professor
School of Dentistry
Center for Health Policy, Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

(951) 234-4319
rbol@mmc.edu

Salil Das, ScD, DSc, Fellow: AAAS; Royal Society of Medicine (UK)

Professor
School of Medicine
Center for Women's Health Research, Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence, Sickle Cell Center, Center for Molecular & Behavioral Neuroscience

(615) 327-6988
sdas@mmc.edu

Sakina Eltom, DVM, MSc, PhD

Professor
School of Medicine
Center for Women's Health Research, Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

(615) 327-5713
seltom@mmc.edu

Shyamali Mukherjee, MSc, PhD

Associate Professor
School of Medicine
Center for Women's Health Research, Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence, Sickle Cell Center

(615) 327-6299
smukherjee@mmc.edu

Zhenbang Chen, PhD

Professor
School of Medicine
Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence

(615) 327-5775
zchen@mmc.edu

Health Disparities Research Center of Excellence Publications

Laminin-521 is a Novel Target of Autoantibodies Associated with Lung Hemorrhage in Anti-GBM Disease.
Cong-Rong Shen, Xiao-Yu Jia, Wentian Luo, Florina Olaru, Zhao Cui, Ming-Hui Zhao, Dorin-Bogdan Borza

Small-Molecule Natural Product Physachenolide C Potentiates Immunotherapy Efficacy by Targeting BET Proteins.
Poonam Tewary, Alan D Brooks, Ya-Ming Xu, E M Kithsiri Wijeratne, Ashley L Babyak, Timothy C Back, Raj Chari, Christine N Evans, Curtis J Henrich, Thomas J Meyer, Elijah F Edmondson, Maria T Prudente de Aquino, Thanigaivelan Kanagasabai, Anil Shanker, A A Leslie Gunatilaka, Thomas J Sayers

Trending the evidence on opioid use disorder (OUD) continuum of care among rural American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) tribes: A systematic scoping review.
Elias Mpofu, Stanley Ingman, Patricia Matthews-Juarez, Solymar Rivera-Torres, Paul D Juarez

Benzo(a)pyrene-induced cytotoxicity, cell proliferation, DNA damage, and altered gene expression profiles in HT-29 human colon cancer cells.
Jeremy N Myers, Kelly L Harris, Perumalla V Rekhadevi, Siddharth Pratap, Aramandla Ramesh

COVID-19 and Cancer Comorbidity: Therapeutic Opportunities and Challenges.
Anup S Pathania, Philip Prathipati, Bakrudeen Aa Abdul, Srinivas Chava, Santharam S Katta, Subash C Gupta, Pandu R Gangula, Manoj K Pandey, Donald L Durden, Siddappa N Byrareddy, Kishore B Challagundla

A glycine substitution in the collagenous domain of Col4a3 in mice recapitulates late onset Alport syndrome.
Christoforos Odiatis, Isavella Savva, Myrtani Pieri, Pavlos Ioannou, Petros Petrou, Gregory Papagregoriou, Kyriaki Antoniadou, Neoklis Makrides, Charalambos Stefanou, Danica Galešić Ljubanović, Georgios Nikolaou, Dorin-Bogdan Borza, Kostas Stylianou, Oliver Gross, Constantinos Deltas