# Translation Core

> **NIH ES P2C** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2026 · $377,673

## Abstract

TRANSLATIONAL CORE - ABSTRACT 
The Translational Core (TC) will be the primary focus of the Center and support 
scientists, community members, and healthcare providers in generating and 
disseminating critical research findings in children’s environmental health to raise 
awareness of exposure risks and encourage meaningful actions for risk mitigation 
across communities. The TC addresses the historical challenges of bridging the gap 
of the generation of new scientific knowledge into high-impact messages that 
promote and sustain long-lasting change among individuals, families, and healthcare 
providers. Building on the scientific knowledge being generated by Emory 
researchers specifically on the environmental health risks to families and young 
children, the TC will focus on accelerating the translation of these findings to public 
health and clinical practice with a primary focus on communities in the Atlanta area 
who may be inadvertently subject to environmental risk. To maximize the public 
health impact of our translational efforts, the TC will 1) leverage the storytelling 
power of virtual reality (VR), 2) harness the ability of communication platforms to 
socially connect users across physical distances, and 3) design messages with 
environmental health literacy practices in mind so that the communication is clearly 
understandable and accessible to target audiences. This effort will be led by Dr. Sun 
Joo Ahn, TC Lead and director of the Games and Virtual Environments Lab at the 
University of Georgia, where she specializes in designing and evaluating interactive 
media messages to promote health behaviors. She will be joined by Dr. Ruth Parker, 
a leading national expert on research, education, and policy efforts to advance our 
nation’s health literacy. The TC will be advised by the Community Cabinet of the 
Administrative Core, including Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks of Spelman University, a 
nationally- recognized leader in engaging urban communities and 

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11235937
- **Project number:** 5P2CES033430-05
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Sun Joo  Ahn
- **Activity code:** P2C (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ES
- **Fiscal year:** 2026
- **Award amount:** $377,673
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-12-13T00:00:00 → 2026-11-30T00:00:00

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11235937

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11235937, Translation Core (5P2CES033430-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-17 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11235937. Licensed CC0.

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