Grants or Gifts Relating to Women in Higher Education

Here is this week’s news of grants and gifts that may be of particular interest to women in higher education.

Alcohol use increases the risk of sexual violence, research has shown, while also reducing the likelihood that bystanders will intervene. To address this dangerous combination, a team of researchers at Georgia State University will use a two-year, a $409,000 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to develop and test social media messages that seek to empower bystanders to take action to prevent sexual assault. The research is under the direction of Anne Marie Schipani-McLaughlin, a research assistant professor in the School of Public Health’s department of health policy and behavioral sciences. Dr. Schipani-McLaughlin and her team will develop digital media messages — ranging from text-only content to short videos — targeted specifically at college students who engage in binge drinking and then systematically examine their effectiveness.

The medical school at Cornell University received a $2.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program to validate a new blood test for the early detection of breast cancer. Researchers will evaluate an experimental diagnostic test that detects specific biomarkers in blood associated with breast cancer. The test uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to determine whether a patient is positive for cancer as soon as detectable by mammogram or possibly earlier, and before symptoms arise.

How does a pregnant person’s environment, diet, stress, medications and social wellbeing affect their pregnancy and — down the road — their child’s health? That will be the focus of a new two-year study funded by a $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health awarded to scientists at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. The researchers will examine how perinatal and early childhood environments and experiences influence the health of children as they grow and develop.