Healing through heritage: leveraging indigenous food systems for infectious and inflammatory diseases in native american communities - this proposal seeks to establish the collaborative research…

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded Navajo Technical University $337,000 on August 7, 2026, to establish the Collaborative Research Center for Diné Health, which will leverage indigenous food systems and traditional knowledge to address H. pylori infectious diseases and diabetes among Diné (Navajo) communities. The award supports an integrated program combining research, infrastructure development, and workforce training to explore the therapeutic potential of traditional Navajo herbs and restore a healthy local food system. The center will integrate biological, chemical, and engineering technologies—including high-throughput microfluidic screening, microencapsulation, and alternative hydroponic farming—with indigenous ethnobotanical frameworks to advance sustainable, tribally appropriate interventions.

The project runs from August 7, 2026, through July 31, 2031, with place of performance in New Mexico. Navajo Technical University, a tribally owned 1994 Land Grant College and the nation's only ABET-accredited tribal college, serves as the recipient. The funding falls under CFDA 93.837, Cardiovascular Diseases Research, a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute program that supports competitive research training and biomedical innovation, though the award's thematic focus on infectious and inflammatory diseases through indigenous food systems represents a distinct application within that program framework.

Healing through heritage: leveraging indigenous food systems for infectious and inflammatory diseases in native american communities - this proposal seeks to establish the collaborative research center for diné health at navajo technical university (NTU), dedicated to leveraging indigenous food systems and traditional knowledge to address urgent health disparities-particularly h. Pylori infectious diseases and diabetes-among the diné (navajo) people. Food has played a central role in diné culture both nutritionally and medicinally, yet much of this heritage is at risk of being lost without scientific validation and infrastructure to preserve IT. Building upon prior research and institutional investments, this project proposes an integrated program of research, infrastructure development, and workforce training to explore the therapeutic potential of traditional navajo herbs and restore a healthy and safe local food system. By aligning scientific inquiry with tribally grounded approaches, the center will generate new solutions that are locally meaningful and community-informed. The initiative aims to blend a platform of biological, chemical and engineering technologies, including high-throughput microfluidic screening, microencapsulation, and alternative hydroponic farming with indigenous ethnobotanical frameworks-advancing sustainable, tribally appropriate interventions to improve health outcomes in tribal communities.