2007 Medical Sciences Institute Endowed Professorships
The strength of a great university resides in its faculty and endowed professorships are one of the most basic and enduring ways of ensuring that strength. At a ceremony in June of this year, three outstanding professors were honored for their excellence in research at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science. These researchers were selected with the utmost care for an award that recognizes academic discipline, achievement and leadership. The promise of an endowed chair can help attract senior scholars and teachers of worldwide repute or help retain rising young stars who are sought after by other institutions in the intense competition for the finest faculty.
The 2007 awardees are Jay Vadgama, Ph.D., Theodore Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., and Eric Bing, M.D., Ph.D. MPH. The three were recognized with and ceremony and will receive a $70,000 funding award for the next three years. Profiles for each of the endowed professorships are available by clicking on the links below.
Jaydutt V. Vadgama, Ph.D.Chief, Division of Cancer Research & Training/Director, Molecular Oncology
Professorship in Cancer Research
Theodore C. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D.Chief, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism & Molecular Medicine
Professorship in Cardio-Metabolic Medicine
Eric G. Bing, M.D., Ph.D., MPHDirector, Drew CARES
Professorship in Global Health & HIV
Funding for the awards was made possible by an NIH endowment award to the newly created Charles Drew University Medical Sciences Institute (MSI). The $35 million MSI endowment base is primarily funded by the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities of the NIH.
The Medical Sciences Institute will play a significant role in the future of medical research at CDU. The University currently receives more than $24 million in NIH funding annually and another $11 million from other varied sources to conduct basic and clinical research. Much of this research is targeted for priority healthcare issues that disproportionately affect ethnic minorities and low-income populations. The MSI will provide new pathways to research discoveries at CDU through creating research teams of the future and re-engineering the clinical research enterprise into a highly structured system and accelerating the translation of scientific advances to improve patient outcomes.
By doing so, the University can improve the recruitment and retention of junior and senior researchers who pursue NIH funding for desperately needed research that has the greatest potential for impacting care for at risk populations in underserved areas throughout the world. Illnesses like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, chronic kidney disease, and HIV/AIDS are top priorities because they claim disproportionately more lives in low-income and minority communities than they do in the general population. During the past twenty years, CDU researchers have pioneered many discoveries related to these health disparity areas.
