The Morehouse School of Medicine Prevention Research Center (PRC) was established in 1998. The PRC is one of a network of 33 academic research centers funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to achieve local and national health objectives focused on gaining knowledge about the best methodologies for solving the nation's obstinate health problems. These centers engage in interdisciplinary applied prevention research in collaboration with community partners; federal, state, and local health and education agencies; and other universities.

The theme of the PRC is: Risk Reduction and Early Detection in African American and Other Minority Communities: Coalition for Prevention
Research. The mission is to advance scientific knowledge in the field of prevention in African American and other minority communities and to disseminate new information and strategies of prevention.

Since its inception, the PRC has worked cooperatively with the communities in which its research is being conducted. The formation of the PRC Community Coalition Board included a majority of representatives from these communities.
The Board directs the research agenda and PRC activities. The research focus of the PRC includes: reduction of HIV risk behavior, cancer prevention, youth violence prevention and reduction, adolescent health promotion, men's health promotion, environmental health, and cardiovascular disease prevention.

The PRC is headed by the Principal Investigator with the assistance of four
Co-Principal Investigators from collaborative institutions and a Director with four Assistant Directors in the areas of: administration, community development, research, and communication and training dissemination.

The PRC strongly holds to the applied definition of community-based research that is: dynamic; "tailor-made"; focuses on prevention; establishes partnerships between communities and research entities; develops improved interventions that are racially and culturally focused, as well as gender, age, and geographically sensitive; and establishes more effective health policies addressing health disparities.

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