She is particularly interested in knowing where these medicines need to go to overcome mucosal barriers, say in the lungs or the gastrointestinal tract, to better interact with immune cells. The five-year MIRA grant will support core areas of Fromen’s work focused on designing medicines that go to mucosal interfaces, such as inhalable vaccines for respiratory problems. University of Delaware chemical engineer Catherine Fromen wants to better understand how these organ-protection mechanisms work to improve the delivery of therapeutic medicines to the body.įromen has been awarded a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award program, which provides promising early-stage investigators with sustained funding to pursue novel ideas. That sneezing fit or stuffy nose when you have a cold? That’s your body leveraging mucosal linings in your respiratory system to expel the offending virus.īut these natural defenses also sometimes work to keep out medicines, a challenging problem that has hindered treatment solutions for diseases such as cancer, fibrosis and even COVID-19. As depicted in the above table, such determinants fall naturally within these dimensions of influence, and can be readily operationalized, measured, and analyzed in ways analogous to their conceptual counterparts for other populations.The human body has built-in protections to keep pathogens out. Examples include spirituality, collective resilience, historical trauma, non-biomedical constructions of illness, traditional healing resources, boarding school education, alternate financing and structure of healthcare, tribal sovereignty, major federal Indian policies, and the like. This is particularly true in regard to determinants thought to be salient for this population, but which are often not considered by conventional research because they reside outside of the normal experience of non-Native groups. It offers a systematic approach by which to identify and locate influences that may be especially relevant to understanding the health and well being of American Indians and Alaska Natives. All elements operate in the context of the birth status of people in the target population, such as genetics, race, ethnicity, age, sex, and tribal affiliation, as well as ascribed status deriving from education, income, and occupation. It highlights multiple points of intersection and their iterative effects. This health disparities framework emphasizes the genetic, biological, environmental, social, political, and cultural influences on the health of individuals and populations.

Research framework model