Meet the Director

Dr. K. Sean Kimbro Dr. Sean Kimbro

Sean Kimbro is a Microbiology, Biochemistry, and Immunology professor at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He is currently the lead PI on a National Institutes of Health Transformative R01 (the first time this type of grant was awarded to an HBCU) and the Director of the Center for Translational Research in Health Disparities, an NIH Research Center in Minority Institutions.

Dr. Kimbro began his research experience at Wright State University as a sophomore at Alter High School, Kettering, Ohio. He later received his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1987 and his Ph.D. in Molecular and Microbiology from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, in 1993. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School and the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

In 1997, Dr. Kimbro became an assistant professor at Clark Atlanta University, Department of Biological Sciences, in Atlanta, Georgia supported by the CAU NIH RCMI. In 2004, Dr. Kimbro directed the NIH Center of Excellence, the Georgia Center for Health Equality at Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University. He was later recruited to North Carolina Central University as the second Director of the Julius L. Chambers Biomedical/Biotechnology Research Institute in 2010. In 2014, Dr. Kimbro received funding for cancer health disparities and returned to the lab to study immunity and breast/prostate cancers, including type 2 diabetes and obesity.

In 2023, Dr. Kimbro joined Morehouse School of Medicine to lead the School’s RCMI grant and integrate basic and community engagement in efforts to address health inequities. Today, Dr. Kimbro trains multiple Ph.D. and Master’s students in his laboratory and actively addresses health disparities in metro Atlanta and rural Georgia.

  1. Hanafi D, Onyenwoke RU, Kimbro KS. The G-Protein-Coupled Estrogen Receptor Selective Agonist G-1 Attenuates Cell Viability and Migration in High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer Cell Lines. Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Jun 13;25(12):6499.
  2. Johnson JR, Martini RN, Yuan YC, Woods-Burnham L, Walker M, Ortiz-Hernandez GL, Kobeissy F, Galloway D, Gaddy A, Oguejiofor C, Allen B, Lewis D, Davis MB, Kimbro KS, Yates CC, Murphy AB, Kittles RA. 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3Suppresses Prognostic Survival Biomarkers Associated with Cell Cycle and Actin Organization in a Non-Malignant African American Prostate Cell Line. Biology (Basel). 2024 May 15;13(5):346.
  3. Burwell A, Kimbro S, Mulrooney T. Geospatial Associations between Female Breast Cancer Mortality Rates and Environmental Socioeconomic Indicators for North Carolina. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jul 15;20(14):6372
  4. Doherty IA, Pilkington W, Brown L, Billings V, Hoffler U, Paulin L, Kimbro KS, Baker B, Zhang T, Locklear T, Robinson S, Kumar D. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in underserved communities of North Carolina. PLoS One. 2021 Nov 1;16(11)
  5. Henry Akintobi T, Sheikhattari P, Shaffer E, Evans CL, Braun KL, Sy AU, Mancera B, Campa A, Miller ST, Sarpong D, Holliday R, Jimenez-Chavez J, Khan S, Hinton C, Sellars-Bates K, Ajewole V, Teufel-Shone NI, McMullin J, Suther S, Kimbro KS, Taylor L, Velez Vega CM, Williams C, Perry G, Zuchner S, Marzan Rodriguez M, Tchounwou PB. Community Engagement Practices at Research Centers in U.S. Minority Institutions: Priority Populations and Innovative Approaches to Advancing Health Disparities Research. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jun 21;18(12):6675. 
  6. Ariel Williams, Natasha Greene, Sean Kimbro. Increased Circulating Cytokines Levels in African American women with Obesity and Elevated HbA1c. Cytokine. 2020 Apr;128:154989.
  7. Hooker SE Jr, Woods-Burnham L, Bathina M, Lloyd S, Gorjala P, Mitra R, Nonn L, Kimbro KS, Kittles RA. (shared last author) Genetic Ancestry Analysis Reveals Misclassification of Commonly Used Cancer Cell Lines. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2019 Jun;28(6):1003-1009. PMID: 30787054