Research Program: Prevention & Etiology
Professor, Department of Medicine

jahluwal@umn.edu
612-626-3378 (Administrative Assistant: Lisa Aldrich, laldrich@umn.edu)
612-625-2660 (Fax)

Dr. Jas Ahluwalia has devoted the past 15 years of his career to improving the health of high-risk populations, such as the underserved and ethnic minorities. He has mentored a large number of trainees who have taken faculty positions and are actively funded by the NIH and foundations. Dr. Ahluwalia received his bachelor's degree at New York University followed by a M.D./M.P.H. at the Tulane University Schools of Medicine and Public Health in 1987. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he completed an internal medicine residency followed by a Harvard Medical School fellowship in clinical epidemiology and a master's degree in health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Ahluwalia joined the University of Minnesota Academic Health Center in 2005 as executive director for the Office of Clinical Research. Dr. Ahluwalia currently serves as professor and associate dean for clinical research in the Medicine School, where he continues his NIH-funded research working with ethnic minority populations on nicotine addiction, diet, and obesity. Dr. Ahluwalia has received more than $11 million in funding over the past 10 years as a principal investigator and $14 million as a co-PI and co-investigator, largely from the NIH.

Research Interests

Dr. Ahluwalia is primarily interested in the area of cancer prevention, control and population sciences. Specifically, he is interested in underrepresented minorities and other underserved populations. He has done research in nicotine addiction and smoking cessation, diet (fruits and vegetables), obesity, nutrition and physical inactivity.

Selected Publications

Okuyemi KS, Powell JN, Savage CR, Hall SB, Nollen NL, Holsen LM, McClernon J, Ahluwalia JS. Enhanced cue-elicited brain activation in African American compared to Caucasian smokers: An f-MRI study. Addict Biol. 2006;11:97-106.

Ahluwalia JS, Okuyemi K, Nollen N, Choi WS, Kaur H, Pulvers K, Mayo MS. The effects of nicotine gum and counseling among African American light amokers: A 2x2 factorial design. Addiction; 2006:101:883-891

Greiner KA, James AS, Born W, Hall S, Engelman KK, Okuyemi KS, Ahluwalia JS. Predictors of fecal cccult blood test (FOBT) completion among low income adults. Preventive Medicine 2005;41:676-634.

Pulvers KM, Lee RE, Ahluwalia HK, Mayo MS, Fitzgibbon ML, Jeffries SK, Butler J, Ahluwalia JS. Development and validation of a culturally-sensitive body image instrument among urban African Americans. Obesity Research; 2004;12:1641-1651.

Ahluwalia JS, Harris KJ. Catley D, Okuyemi K, Mayo MS. Sustained-release bupropion and placebo for smoking cessation in African Americans: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA 2002;288:468-474.