VSU Receives $430,000 dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute on Drug Abuse

Virginia State University’s Larry Keen has received a 3-year, $430,000 dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute on Drug Abuse to study the relationship between cannabis use and heart rate variability in students at Virginia State University. This funding will allow Dr. Keen and his team to address two major deficits in the existing literature: (1) no study exists measuring associations between cannabis use frequency and autonomic health in young adults and (2) no study has examined the prevalence of Cannabis Use Disorder (CUD) in a sample with more than 15% African Americans, with no published study examining students at a HBCU. 

With this grant, Dr. Keen will be able to provide funding for 7 undergraduate students to participate in biomedical research, generate data for conferences and manuscripts, and inspire other undergraduate students to participate in research via lab workshops and various grant related activities.

Dr. Keen’s grant was funded through NIH’s Research Enhancement Award Program (R15), which “supports small-scale research projects at educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation’s research scientists but that have not been major recipients of NIH support.” This is the first R15 grant awarded to a VSU faculty member and the largest research grant from NIH to an investigator at VSU.