Here is this week’s news of grants to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Historically Black Alabama State University in Montgomery received a $123,659 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense for a research project on bone tissue regeneration for wounded soldiers. The grant will allow the university to purchase an infrared spectrometer and an infrared microscope.
The University of California at Los Angeles received a $14 million grant from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine for a clinical trial that will focus on stem-cell gene therapy for 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.
Howard University, the historically Black educational institution in Washington, D.C., received a $110,000 grant from the GM Foundation. The grant will be used to support curriculum development and job skills development in STEM disciplines.