OU Researcher Receives $6.6 Million Grant

Tuesday, October 2nd 2007, 9:04 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- A researcher at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center received a $6.6 million grant to help fight diabetes, particularly among the state's American Indian population.

An estimated 60,000 American Indians in Oklahoma have diabetes.

To address this issue, the National Institutes of Health awarded the five-year grant on Monday to OU researcher J. Neil Henderson to establish the Oklahoma Center for American Indian Diabetes Health Disparities.

OU health practitioners will focus primarily on the impact of diabetes on maternal health, infant mortality and obesity.

Much of the work will be done with members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes.

OU medical researchers will work with health care professionals at Indian health centers in Ada, Talihina and Oklahoma City.

"Diabetes is a complex, escalating disease with biological and social roots. The need to reduce and prevent diabetes in American Indians is urgent," said Henderson, who is an American Indian.

The new center will be part of work being conducted at the larger "Harold Hamm Oklahoma Diabetes Center." Construction is scheduled to start on the diabetes center in 2008.