Nadja Vielot, PhD, was recently awarded a four-year K01 grant totaling over $620K by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The grant, "Developing and piloting an intervention to reduce human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination disparities in rural adolescents," aims to improve HPV vaccination rates in rural North Carolinians to reduce the drastic urban-rural disparities in HPV cancer incidence and mortality.

Leah Ranney, PhD, Sarah Kowitt, PhD, MPH, and team were rewarded a five-year, $2.9 million grant studying cannabis warnings. The award from the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) will go towards research involving a legal analysis of existing cannabis warning regulations, interviews with cannabis regulators, the development of evidence-based cannabis warnings, and online experiments to implement more effective warnings that inform people about the risks associated with cannabis use.

Headspace, the popular wellness app, is available to UNC Health Employees, a partnership highlighted in a two-part episode of the TarHeal Wellness podcast exploring the partnership and available resources, including evidence-based meditation and mindfulness tools, mental health coaching, therapy, psychiatry, and family support.

The Academy of Educators, housed within the School of Medicine’s Office of Faculty Affairs and Leadership Development, has recognized 27 faculty and trainee members with teaching awards.

This year’s UNC TEACCH Autism Program Conference focuses on community collaborations that truly make an impact on the lives of autistic individuals across the world. Presenters will cover community collaborations to support autism diagnoses in rural communities and to support mental health interventions through collaborations with early intervention providers, educators, and autistic adults. Join us on October 24-25, 2024 in person at UNC Friday Conference Center in Chapel Hill, NC or virtually.

The UNC Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program published a study about the effectiveness of pictorial health warning labels as proven tools for communicating the dangers of tobacco product use. The study, led by Sonia Clark, MHA, a social clinical research specialist in the UNC Department of Family Medicine, sought to identify the most effective types of images to pair with newly developed cigar health warning labels.

UNC Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program (TPEP) researchers performed a content analysis of all candy tobacco imitation products available for online purchase in the United States, finding that 75% of candy tobacco imitation products that had packaging design available had content that appealed to youth.

Listing of recent competitive grant awards to SOM faculty

UNC SOM would like to take a minute to congratulate the 2023-2024 Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS) student Inductees.

The Spring 2024 Core Facility Staff Recognition Awards were awarded to Gaby de la Cruz (Pathology Services Core) for Performance Excellence, Bentley Midkiff (Pathology Services Core) for Technical Achievement, and Rossana Roberts (Abacus Evaluation) for Customer Service. Congratulations!

Matthew Nielsen, MD, MS, chair of urology and member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, was selected by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) to participate in the 2024 class of the NAM Scholars in Diagnostic Excellence program.

Guochun Jiang, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics and member of the UNC HIV Cure Center, received an R01 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for his project “Defining the HIV reservoir and latency mechanism in human brain myeloid cells” which is funded for five years and $4.6 million.

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Vielot Receives K01 Grant to Reduce HPV Vaccination Disparities

UNC Researchers Awarded Grant to Improve Cannabis Warnings

TarHeal Wellness Podcast Highlights Headspace App Access to UNC Health Employees

Academy of Educators Names 2023-24 Teaching Award Recipients

UNC TEACCH Autism Program 43rd Annual Conference – Community Collaborations: Bringing Evidence-Based Practices to Home Communities

Research Reveals Most Effective Images for Cigar Health Warning Labels

Candy Tobacco Imitation Products Availability and Marketing Linked to Children

Latest Grant Awards to SOM Faculty

Congratulations to the 2023-2024 Gold Humanism Honor Society Inductees

De la Cruz, Midkiff and Roberts Chosen as Recipients of the Spring 2024 Core Facility Staff Recognition Awards

Nielsen Selected for NAM Scholars in Diagnostic Excellence Program

Jiang Receives $4.46-million NIMH Grant