Healthy and At-Risk Populations

University Of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

The Healthy and At-Risk Populations program (HARP) has 34 core members representing four schools and 13 departments in total. During the current funding year, cancer-related funding for this program totaled $20.8M in total costs. Of this amount, peer-reviewed funding totaled $13.5M in total costs, including $3.4M from the National Cancer Institute. As with other programs, JCCC fosters a number of interactive activities and shared resources that support investigators in HARP. During the current grant cycle, funds from the JCCC in the form of the CCSG Developmental Funds, institutional support and philanthropic gifts to HARP total $2,043,085. These funds supported seed grants, program area leadership support, as well as the annual disparities symposium hosted by HARP in the community. The HARP program is highly interactive, with 15% of its publications reflecting intra-programmatic efforts and 11 % reporting inter-programmatic collaborations. 178 (28%) appeared in high-impact journals. Accruals to prevention trials totaled 1,186, screening 1,021, early detection/diagnostic 1,151, epidemiologic/obs/outcome 1,426, correlative 113. The goals of the HARP are to advance understanding of cancer risk and protective factors and to identify strategies to make the latest cancer prevention knowledge and technologies accessible to the population at large. HARP research spans four broad focus areas: 1. cancer risk and protective factors/etiology, 2. primary prevention, 3. screening/early detection, 4. infrastructure projects supporting community engagement. Two major themes characterize the research of this program: cancer disparities and translational research (mainly T3 and T4). These themes are not mutually exclusive, and in fact most projects in the program incorporate both. Our cancer disparities research focuses on cancer prevention and control interventions to mitigate disparities in low-income, ethnic minority and other socially and medically underserved populations in Los Angeles and beyond and has brought recognition to UCLA as one of the premier cancer disparities research programs in the nation.