The HHRC is a research center established at the Brownsville Regional Campus of the University of Texas School of Public Health in 2003 with a five year, NIH 'Export' grant from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities Grant Number: 5 P20 MD000170. This grant has now been renewed for a further five years to 2013. The purpose is to conduct research into strata of diseases prevalent in Hispanic populations. The original grant had several cores: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, community outreach and statistical support. The continuing program under the renewal of the funding now has three research cores focusing on obesity and diabetes research and prevention, particularly the impact on mental health and infectious diseases, both understudied sequelae of these chronic conditions. Training, outreach and administration cores complete the package. The renewal of this program grant creates The Center of Excellence for Diabetes in Americans of Mexican Descent.
Since its inception the HHRC has been dynamic and in constant development. This has allowed us to determine and focus on the health issues of greatest importance. Prominent developments include establishments of the first purely Mexican American cohort for studies of health disparities, (The Cameron County Hispanic Cohort (CCHC)) now numbering 1800 extensively documented individuals), a Clinical Research Unit funded under a Clinical and Translational Research Award (1U54RR023417-01) focused on translational research and vaccine studies in a minority population, and a major international tuberculosis program now conducting prospective studies enrolling patients both sides of the US/Mexico border and in Colombia and Bangladesh, also funded by NIH. Important advances of HHRC studies include understanding that this Mexican American population has the highest rates of diabetes in the United States, and the alarming observation that diabetes itself is the major risk factor for the high rates of tuberculosis seen both sides of the border. These observations are stimulating new research focused on the development of diabetes and the consequences of impairment of immune function associated with both obesity and diabetes.
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