A 35-year-old African-American male with sickle cell  anemia, a chronic blood disease, suffers a stroke in his downtown Los Angeles home. He does not have access to a specialty care facility for adults with sickle cell disease.

A 4’6” eight-year-old boy weighing 90 pounds has been diagnosed with diabetes. He lives in a pocket of East Los Angeles where 97 fast food restaurants exist within in a four-mile radius. Neither he nor his family has been educated on the importance of proper nutrition and exercise.

A 45-year-old woman who lives near a freeway − a hotbed for air pollutants like car exhaust − has developed a chronic cough and chest pain. Her two children, who love to play outdoors, have experienced shortness of breath and wheezing and are at risk for developing asthma.

These are people who suffer from some of the health issues plaguing our urban communities.

Health care is more than taking a pill. Armed with a $56.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at USC, along with a host of academic, clinical and community partners in central Los Angeles, will work to gain knowledge that they can translate rapidly to improved health for diverse populations living in urban areas.

FIRST IN l.A. The prestigious Clinical and Translational Science Award, which will be distributed over the next five years, is the first such award funded in Los Angeles. It supports the expanded Los Angeles Basin Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), which was established in 2006 to promote scientific discoveries and their application in real-life settings and to improve public health and health care.

Faculty from eight USC schools and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles are partnering with Kaiser Permanente Southern California, the L.A. County health system, the Community Clinic Association of L.A. County and more than 30 community health organizations in greater Los Angeles to address the specific needs of the urban and diverse patient populations found in USC’s backyard, the Los Angeles Basin. Clinical activities also take place at USC University Hospital, USC Norris Cancer Hospital and Doheny Eye Institute.

“The CTSA is the pivot point on which new clinical research growth will turn,” says Keck School of Medicine Dean Carmen A. Puliafito, M.D., M.B.A. For example, the CTSA will foster new clinical programs in such areas as biomedical ethics, clinical informatics and outcomes research.

Read more on keck.usc.edu