CTSI leaders' team awarded almost $3 million for “Safe Return to School” effort

A team of UCLA researchers co-led by CTSI leaders, Dr. Moira Inkelas and Dr. Mitch Wong, has received almost $3 million in grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to increase COVID-19 testing access and uptake for underserved and vulnerable populations.

Their goal is to reduce disparities in returning vulnerable and underserved school children to in-person learning in communities that are most at risk for adverse outcomes from contracting the virus.

UCLA's is one of is one of 15 teams that have received an NIH award through the RADx-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) Safe Return to School Diagnostic Testing initiative, a part of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative.

Read the full UCLA press release. This story was also featured by KCBS/KCAL.

The team includes faculty and staff from the UCLA Fielding School departments of health policy and management and epidemiology, the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and UCLA’s CTSI, partnered with the Los Angeles Unified School District. 

The UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) has offered scientific and research support for safer school re-opening since Summer 2020. 

Related:
UCLA Health receives $3 million NIH grant to study how COVID-19 testing can aid students’ return to classroom