PROJECT SUMMARY Hispanic participants are underrepresented in clinical and translational research studies, limiting the applicability and representativeness of findings from many national studies. One of the main objectives of The Hispanic Alliance for Clinical and Translational Research (Alliance) is to increase representation of Hispanics, and enhance clinical and translational research in Hispanics, through increased participation, access to biological samples and access to advance research technologies. The funds requested will greatly enhance the Alliance’s biorepositories infrastructure capacity and ability to support clinical and translational research at the University of Puerto Rico, the Universidad Central del Caribe and the Ponce Health Sciences University, and thus impact research across Puerto Rico. It will specifically expand our ability to use and store biological specimens and data through the acquisition of the necessary equipment that will leverage the resources of established biospecimen repositories at participating institutions integrated to the Alliance Biorepository Network (ABN). The requested equipment will enhance the Alliance’s research infrastructure by providing investigators access to banked specimens and data needed to launch various studies related to systemic health, thus reducing data collection and recruitment efforts.This will significantly improve our ability to identify and measure biomarkers and support clinical and translational investigators in diseases that are highly prevalent in our population, such as cardiometabolic diseases, cancer, and emerging infectious diseases. Additionally, the requested funds will provide an increased capacity to perform more comprehensive basic characterization of cellular and molecular processes at the single-cell “omics” level, through the use of a state-of-the-art single cell analysis system. This will be of great value for supporting studies working with in-vitro models and patient derived cells. The requested equipment will also allow the parent project to continue providing research support by expanding the ABN equipment capabilities to the Alliance’s cores, collaborators, and partners.

NARRATIVE Through this supplement, the requested equipment will greatly enhance the biorepositories capacity of the Hispanic Alliance of Clinical and Translational Research (Alliance) to support clinical and translational research in diseases highly prevalent in the Hispanic population and Puerto Rico. Specifically, this supplement will increase the capacity of the Alliance Biorepository Network (ABN) for biological samples storage and processing, single-cell “omics” analyses, and access to basic equipment and facilities for investigators in Puerto Rico.