Geneviève Graaf has spent years as a social worker in mental health specializing in children and young people with complex behavioral health needs. Many had to go to other states or hundreds of kilometers from the family to access adequate medical care. Relying on his experience, Dr GraafDeputy Professor of Social Work at the University of Texas in Arlington, continuously sought ways to improve community support programs and to alleviate the Family Bard.
She will be based on this work with her latest research via UT Arlington Center for Innovation in Health Informatics (CIHI), who recently received funding from the Raj nooyi Doed Research Award Fund. The Graaf project was one of the two selected for inaugural subsidies of the price seeds.
The other project, led by Salman SohrabiDeputy professor of bio-engineering at UTA, focuses on healthy aging.
The seed subsidies were made possible by a gift of $ 5 million in Raj Nooyi (1978 MS, Industrial Engineering) and his wife, Indra, to position UTA at the avant-garde in the growing field of health computer science.
“We express our sincere gratitude to Raj Nooyi for his generous support,” said Marion Ball, executive director of Cihi and Raj and Indra Nooyi, a distinguished president in bio-engineering. “Its funding for a seed subsidy initiative has helped encourage our researchers to refine their ideas and submit impactful proposals to national financing agencies and foundations, with particular accent on cancer, aging and pediatrics.”
The Graaf project will examine four distinct populations of children – those with physical disorders, intellectual disorders or development, complex behavioral health needs and complex medical needs. Over a period of eight years, the study will assess and compare the characteristics of children and the family; health care and support needs; And the social, community and educational challenges with which each group is confronted.
“Our study will help decision -makers and state administrators to monitor performance, assess programs and design more reactive community support initiatives for these children and their families,” said Graaf.
Dr. Sohrabi will direct a study on healthy aging by concentrating “not only on the extension of life, but on the improvement of its quality”.
“I am passionate about the translation of discoveries in aging biology in significant interventions that improve health and quality of life,” said Sohrabi. “My work focuses on the extension of reproductive longevity, the prevention of neurodegeneration under conditions such as Alzheimer and the preservation of muscle function with age. By targeting the underlying mechanisms of age-related decline, I aim to promote healthier aging. ”
To discover the molecular basis of healthy aging, Sohrabi said that researchers must constantly and quantitatively study the progressive decline of various biological functions over time. The most effective way to do so is by short -lived short -lived models such as Caenorhabditis Elegans (C. Elegans) – a transparent tiny green often used in research to study genetics, aging and disease – which allow real -time monitoring of age -related changes in a few weeks.
“Our research is aimed at discovering the mechanisms that compromise health or to extend health duration by developing a new approach to quantify the quality of life regardless of lifespan,” said Sohrabi.