Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Rice University has been awarded a four-year, $2.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to address critical questions surrounding the safety and efficacy of using gene editing to treat sickle cell disease. While people of any race can have the sickle-cell trait, the disease is far more common among African Americans than it is among Whites. About one in every 400 African Americans is born with the sickle-cell trait.
North Carolina Central University School of Law has received a $300,000 donation from the international law firm Perkins Coie to establish the Perkins Coie Technology Law Scholarship Program. The Perkins Coie Technology Law Scholarship Program will help provide financial assistance to cover tuition and fees for at least five second- or third-year NCCU law students who have demonstrated an interest in technology. The scholarship amount will range from $5,000 to $20,000 per student per academic year.
SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn received a $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue the work of its Translational Program of Health Disparities Research Training program which focused on recruiting and training health equity researchers from underrepresented groups in the biomedical sciences.
Historically Black Jarvis Christian University in Hawkins, Texas, received a five-year, $2.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation to recruit and retain students from underrepresented groups in STEM fields. Students will participate in research in the biomedical sciences, mathematical modeling, and engineering.
