NIH Grant to Expand Research Training in Women’s Health

By Sathya Achia Abraham

The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine has received a nearly $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue a program that provides mentorship and training support to young scientists researching women's health.

VCU was one of 15 new and continuing programs nationwide to receive the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health, or BIRCWH, funding.

BIRCWH was developed to promote the career development of independent researchers working on women's health issues by pairing scholars with senior investigators in a mentored, interdisciplinary scientific environment.

Through the grant, principal investigator Jerome F. Strauss III, M.D., Ph.D.,dean of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, will focus efforts on junior faculty members who are conducting basic, clinical, translational, behavioral or health services research in women's health, with an emphasis on sex and gender factors.

"VCU has dedicated a considerable amount of resources to advance women's healthcare, research and education programs," Strauss said. "The opportunity to help young researchers in this area is critical to future advances in this discipline."

This grant will be used to support early career development of VCU faculty who are pursuing multidisciplinary research in women's health, Strauss said.

VCU in 2000 received a $2.7 million BIRCWH grant that covered five areas of research relevant to women's health: substance abuse, psychiatric genetics, reproductive health, cancer and diseases related to aging. That grant, administered through the VCU Institute for Women's Health, successfully trained eight VCU faculty researchers over the five-year grant period.

The work is supported by the NIH's Office of Research on Women's Health.