The UHAND Program to Reduce Cancer Disparities — a four-year, $275,000-per-year grant from the National Cancer Institute — will focus on cancer prevention in Houston’s Third Ward and East End: hubs for the city’s African-American and Hispanic communities, respectively.
The program will entail two, two-year cohorts of eight students and one postdoctoral fellow, each of whom are paired with a research mentor from either MD Anderson or UH and a community organization, specifically in the Third Ward and Fifth Ward. By having students study and apply their findings with the communities’ involvement, they’re “able to understand the problem from a real-world perspective, not just theoretical and didactic,” McNeill said.