Lawrence David Receives Chan-Zuckerberg Diversity Leadership Awards from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Two researchers from Duke University School of Medicine and one from Duke’s Department of Biology have been named recipients of the 2022 Science Diversity Leadership Awards from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
Lawrence David, PhD, associate professor of molecular genetics and microbiology; Chantell Evans, PhD, assistant professor of cell biology; and Gustavo Silva, PhD, assistant professor of biology, were among 25 awardees named nationwide. Each grant recipient will be awarded a total of $1.15 million over five years.
Launched this year in partnership with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, The Science Diversity Leadership program recognizes the leadership and scientific accomplishments of excellent biomedical researchers who — through their outreach, mentoring, and teaching — have a record of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in their scientific fields.
Lawrence David’s project, “Sharing Open Source Software for Biomarker-Based Analysis of Diet,” will distribute open-source bioinformatic tools and resources for analyzing biomarkers of food intake. These biomarkers can in turn can be used to study the origins and management of autoimmune, metabolic, and cardiovascular diseases.
“We are developing diet-tracking tools that are designed to overcome some of the barriers that underserved communities can face when completing traditional dietary surveys, like age, literacy, cultural background, potential anxiety due to stigmas around body weight, and time burdens,” David said. His project will bring these tools to researchers around the world through a series of workshops.