3 Wisconsin ADRC investigators will lead new UW Center for Health Disparities Research

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The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health launched the UW Center for Health Disparities Research in April 2021. The new center seeks to examine how a person’s environment and social conditions impact their health down to the molecular level. Amy Kind, MD, PhD, professor of medicine (geriatrics) in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, is the center’s founding director.

“UW–Madison is deeply committed to advancing research toward the elimination of health disparities,” Kind said. “To do this, we need to understand why disparities happen — get to the roots of their mechanisms.”

Joining Kind are two deputy directors — Barbara Bendlin, PhD, professor of medicine (geriatrics) in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, and Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi, PhD, RN, assistant professor in the UW School of Nursing. Kind, Bendlin and Gilmore-Bykovskyi are investigators in the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

The center’s first major initiative will be a national effort called “The Neighborhood Study,” which is funded by a new $28.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health awarded to UW–Madison and led by principal investigators Kind and Bendlin. Using data from 22 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers throughout the United States, the center will examine how social determinants of health throughout a person’s lifetime impact their brain health.

The UW School of Medicine and Public Health published "UW Launches Innovative Center for Health Disparities Research" on May 25, 2021.