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News from NCRR
Researchers Named Health Ambassadors
(Photos by Paul Antico, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science on the left and Meharry Medical College on the right)
NCRR-funded researchers Eric G. Bing and James E. K. Hildreth were among the 27 prominent scientists named as Ambassadors by the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research. The Rogers Society, which advocates for greater U.S. investment in global health research, announced its inaugural group of Ambassadors in November. These prominent scientists will be involved in public outreach and advocacy to convey the importance of global health research to the nation.
Bing is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. He is also an epidemiologist with extensive expertise in HIV and the director of the Drew Center for AIDS Research, Education, and Services. The Center develops domestic and international programs to combat and treat HIV. Through the Center, Bing oversees programs in Angola, Namibia, and Rwanda aimed at preventing and treating HIV. Bing’s research focuses on developing and evaluating interventions that aim to improve the health care for disadvantaged populations, particularly those affected by alcohol and drug problems, HIV, and mental illness.
Hildreth is the director of the Meharry Center for Health Disparities Research in HIV at Meharry Medical College. The Center examines biological factors that may explain racial disparities in HIV infection and studies behavioral factors that place African Americans at a higher risk for the disease. Hildreth’s research focuses on the relationship between HIV and cholesterol, a necessary component of HIV transmission. He is developing vaginal creams that can extract cholesterol from HIV thus blocking infection during sexual intercourse. (See “Exploring the Potential of HIV Microbicides.”) Hildreth is the former chief of the division of research at the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities at NIH.
The Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research was established in July 2006 by Research!America.
