The 2019-2020 FIU-RCMI Pilot Grants have been awarded! Over the next couple of months, we will highlight the recipients and their projects. The first pilot grant awardee we would like to introduce is Shanna Burke, PhD, MSW. Dr. Burke is an Assistant Professor at Florida International University’s Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work. As a public health social worker, Dr. Burke’s research focuses on cognition and cognitive impairment, which includes neurodevelopmental disabilities and neurodegenerative disorders. Her translational objective is to decrease health disparities through the utilization of culturally responsive multi-modal assessment procedures, diagnostic methods, and interventions targeting cognitive impairments and chronic diseases across the lifespan. Her pilot project, “The differential impact of apolipoprotein E genotype on cognitive and mental health among minorities with HIV and HCV”, seeks to move this research agenda forward.

Despite the fact that HIV and hepatitis C disease progression, treatment efficacy, and mortality may be directly affected by specific APOE genotypes, genetic screening is largely absent in HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) clinical care. APOE e4 may directly affect or interact with behavioral and sociodemographic factors to impact cognitive and mental health in disparate ways among minority patients with HIV and/or HCV. The purpose of this project is to conduct the formative work needed to examine the impact of APOE genotype on cognitive and mental health among a minority sample of HIV/HCV patients, which will provide the opportunity to collect the pilot data needed for a more exhaustive large-scale study of the impact of APOE genotype on individuals with HIV and/or HCV from disadvantaged backgrounds.