Tuskegee University, the historically Black educational institution in Alabama, has entered into a partnership with Eli Lilly and Company with the goal of increasing the number of African American who participate in pharmaceutical clinical trials. The partnership will include applied research, education, and community engagement programs. The ultimate goal of the project is to reestablish trust between the African American community and the medical research establishment.
Leading the effort at Tuskegee will Rueben Warren, a professor and director of the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care. Dr. Warren said that “African Americans have not benefitted equitably from the genius of human subject research based on a history of distrust due, in part, to the myths and facts about the United States Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee.”
Dr. Warren is a graduate of San Francisco State University. He earned a dental doctorate at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennesse, and a master of public health and a doctorate in public health from the Harvard University. Dr. Warren also holds a master of divinity degree in ethics and theology from the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.
