Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Heading link
The University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) women’s health and sex/gender-based research career development program, Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH), is an NIH-funded, K12 training grant to mentor scientists in women’s health and sex/gender-based health research. The UIC BIRCWH program trains a diverse group of junior faculty scholars, and postdoctoral fellows, to become independent women’s health or sex/gender-based research investigators. The program consists of a core and tailored curriculum, research training, mentoring (by a team of two or more senior women’s health or sex/gender-based health researchers), individualized career planning, and research projects.
Children’s Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI) Heading link
The Children’s Environmental Health Initiative (CEHI) is a research, education, and outreach program committed to fostering environments where all people can prosper. CEHI oversees multiple environmental research projects emphasizing the special vulnerabilities of children. CEHI projects focus on incorporating innovative spatial analysis in combination with field-based sampling into children’s environmental health research. CEHI maintains a deep institutional commitment to issues of social justice and thus focuses much of its work in low income and minority communities.
The UIC National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health (CoE) Heading link
The UIC CoE functions jointly with the CRWG, and is one of only 21 academic health centers in the country designated by the Department of Health and Human Services, and it is the only CoE in Women’s Health in Illinois. The CoE was designated as a National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health in 1998, and is one of only 20 federally designated centers in the US. HHS named the COE an “Ambassador for Change” in 2006. HHS discontinued the funded CoE program in 2007, but allowed the CoEs to keep the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health designation. The overall goal of the research core at the CoE is to advance research in women’s health at UIC, particularly research that focuses on urban women and those from underserved populations. CoE activities spark interdisciplinary collaboration, promote multidisciplinary research, and disseminate information on women’s health research issues and outcomes to community women and clinicians as well as to city, state, and national policy makers and the media.
Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health (CoE-MCH) Heading link
The UIC Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health (CoE-MCH) builds and strengthens the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) workforce by training graduate and undergraduate public health students and working professionals in MCH as well as advancing MCH science, research, practice, and policy. The Center emphasizes multi-level approaches to understanding and addressing the complex factors that affect the health and well-being of women, children, and families. An essential ingredient is the partnerships we have with public and private sector agencies serving the MCH population and the communities in which MCH problems are prevalent. The Center is committed to scientific rigor, evidence-based public health practice, and the principles of participatory and collaborative research and practice.
Center for Research of Women and Gender (CRWG) Heading link
CRWG was founded in 1991 to foster interdisciplinary research and support and build an intellectual community around women and gender scholarship at UIC. CRWG is the product of collaborative efforts among researchers from the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Applied Health Sciences, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Medicine, Social Work, the School of Public Health, and the University Library. CRWG brings together UIC Scholars from various disciplines to advance interdisciplinary research and scholarship on women and gender.
The Perinatal Research Laboratory (Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology) Heading link
The Perinatal Research Laboratory, part of the research Division of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology is focused on studies of normal and pathologic pregnancy. The Perinatal Research Laboratory manages and houses the UIC Prospective Perinatal and Gynecological Research Biorepository (UIC | PPRR, UIC IRB 219-0726). The goal of the biorepository is to develop a high quality and consistent repository of biological specimens and data with the purpose of discovery of biomarkers that predict adverse pregnancy complications and advancing our understanding of the causes and mechanism leading to major obstetrical syndromes such as preeclampsia, spontaneous preterm labor, preterm premature rupture of membranes, miscarriage, placenta previa, placenta accreta, fetal growth restriction. In addition to pregnancy biomarkers, a biorepository of specimens from gynecological procedures will help determine causes of and improved treatments of disorders affecting people’s health such as endometriosis, infertility, chronic pelvic pain, menopause, and pelvic floor disorders.
UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) Heading link
The UIC Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) serves as the intellectual and geographic home for clinical and translational research at UIC. Supported by NIH funding through a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA), and a strong institutional commitment, the CCTS is a focal point for developing and nurturing interdisciplinary collaborations that will help to advance the university’s clinical and translational research enterprise. The CCTS Administrative and Core Representative offices are centrally located in the Medical Center Administration building in close proximity to the health colleges, making support easily accessible. The CCTS provides a single point-of-access for investigators. CCTS Navigators and Core Coordinators are available to assist new and experienced investigators in accessing resources and developing effective collaborations for translational research.
The ChicAgo Center for Health and EnvironmenT (CACHET) Heading link
Funded by the NIEHS/NIH, The ChicAgo Center for Health and EnvironmenT (CACHET) is a P30 Center that promotes multidisciplinary environmental health research among clinician, laboratory and population scientists from two Chicago area universities with complementary strengths and structure to understand, evaluate and ultimately reduce environmental health related disparities among residents of the region and beyond.