Xavier University of Louisiana, in pursuit of its mission to promote a more just and humane society, uses research to uncover innovative breakthroughs that contribute to the positive progression of society. Funding is vital to facilitate such research, and thus Xavier celebrates the renewal of the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) $25 million award that will allow the university to continue its substantial work in lessening health disparities for the next five years.

The RCMI program is through the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), a sector of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that is explicitly dedicated to research that improves the health of underrepresented communities and reduces health disparities. The program aims to develop and strengthen the research infrastructure necessary to conduct state-of-the-art biomedical research and foster the next generation of researchers from diverse backgrounds. Launched in 1985, RCMI gives an award every five years to institutions that demonstrate their capability to live up to the mission of the program. These institutions also can have their award renewed after every five-year term. This will be Xavier’s third award renewal after the initial approval.

“The point of RCMI is to continue to increase our research capacity. It funds a wide variety of research facilities, which include research instrumentation; people who are highly skilled at statistics that can help faculty with their projects; [and] in how to develop new drugs,” said Dr. Gene D’Amour, special assistant to the president and the first principal investigator for Xavier’s RCMI program. “Those serve faculty and students across the university, and candidly, without them, I don’t know how we would continue to do research.”

Though a member of the funded cohort in the 1980s, Xavier was not renewed in the 1990s and would not apply for the RCMI program again until after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. After three years of preparing to apply, Xavier was awarded the grant in 2009, and was renewed for funding in 2014, 2019, and now again in 2023. Each renewal cycle awards Xavier about $5,000,000 a year for five years to support the projects developed in the proposal. Originally, Xavier’s RCMI programs focused on cancer and cancer research, but in each renewal cycle, the grant’s use at the university has expanded to include the research of other diseases such as diabetes, HIV, and Alzheimer’s, with special consideration on research that impact health disparities. For this renewal cycle, Xavier’s three projects will focus on researching sugar consumption, vaccine hesitancy, and the use of protax molecules on the degeneration of molecular targets. The grant enables Xavier to have and operate core labs and equipment that make this research possible.

“Xavier has been able to dramatically expand its work in health disparities. Louisiana has the second highest proportion of African Americans in this country, and in those communities, they have the highest death numbers from cancer and diabetes and other diseases,” said Dr. D’Amour. “So, one of the things this grant has done is helped us further develop our work with federally qualified health clinics around the state to get in these communities...to study the diseases that are there and study ways those diseases can be prevented or assisted in their cure.”

Along with Dr. D’Amour, Dr. Guangdi Wang, a professor in the Chemistry department, and Dr. Christopher Williams, chair of the Division of Basic Pharmaceutical Science in Xavier’s College of Pharmacy, were also heavily involved in the most recent renewal cycle as multi-Principal Investigators (PIs). As multi-PIs, they will provide guidance and facilitate the projects that will develop under the grant.

The grant renewal process required an intense amount of attention and consideration of feedback from previous cycles, including incorporating more clinical research and community outreach to address more of the health disparities aspect. In each renewal cycle, there is a risk that the funding will not be renewed, so the PIs must create a substantial proposal.

“It wasn’t guaranteed at that time. Each institution that applies is scored, and the lower the number, the better,” said Dr. Wang. “Each renewal cycle we aim to get a good score so that we can continue to receive this funding, but it is not guaranteed that we will.”

Since its founding nearly 100 years ago, Xavier’s commitment to social justice and academic innovation has led it to be at the forefront of evolving curricula and research needs. The renewal of the RCMI grant marks the continuance of nuanced research that allows Xavier to continue its work to reduce health disparities and increase health equity, all of which further enables the institution to better carry out its mission. Without it, Xavier’s research capacity could be greatly reduced, making each renewal a cause of celebration.  

“It falls directly into the mission of Xavier,” said Dr. Williams. “Our students are going to benefit from RCMI being here because the more active our faculty can be, the more individual opportunities for students can be provided along the way. It enhances the environment of discovery here, and it’s right in our wheelhouse of trying to create a more just and humane society.”