Research 2025:
The Year in Discovery
Even in a year of unprecedented turbulence, the Division of Biology and Medicine continued to build and to innovate. Basic scientists, clinicians, entrepreneurs, and local laborers are expanding Brown’s impact on Rhode Island and the world, literally and figuratively.
Research Stories
Now a Center, Global Health Expands Its Focus
For 15 years, Brown’s Global Health Initiative led NIH-funded research and training programs around the world and promoted medical student research with seed grants and the mentorship of dozens of BioMed faculty working in global and refugee health.
The new Center for Global Health Equity, established in 2025, builds on that foundation to include global health clinical and research training of PLME and medical students, residents and fellows, graduate students and postdocs, and participants in the Medical School’s pipeline programs. The center will expand its work by providing additional support to junior and mid-career faculty as they build their careers in global health and health equity research. In particular, the center will focus on new areas of investigation such as digital health in low-resource settings, infant and maternal health, humanitarian and refugee health, and examining the ethics of global health research and practice.
The Center for Global Health Equity recently received $1.5 million over five years from the NIH Fogarty International Center to support a collaborative HIV, tuberculosis, and mental health research training program in Ukraine. In addition, the center announced gifts of $50,000 over five years from Gary Fishman ’97 MD’01 as well as $400,000 over four years from the R. Dudley Harrington, Jr. Charitable Foundation to support research and education efforts in areas of conflict and disaster.
Two for One
As the inaugural associate dean of global health equity, Adam C. Levine, MD, MPH, is bringing together two areas of strength for Brown: global health research and education, and efforts to reduce health care disparities both at home and abroad.
“The need for a center that can bring together and support faculty researchers and educators from across BioMed’s 20 departments to find innovative ways to reduce health disparities wherever they occur, as well as inspire and train the next generation of global health and health equity practitioners, is now greater than ever,” Levine says. “I am honored to serve as the new associate dean and director of the Center for Global Health Equity alongside our incredible staff and affiliated faculty, students, and trainees from Brown and partner institutions around the world.”
