Auburn University MRI Research Center
Our vision is to leverage Auburn University's existing expertise in engineering, sciences, and veterinary medicine to improve healthcare through advanced magnetic resonance imaging. The facility houses a Siemens Verio open-bore 3T MRI scanner for clinical and research use, one of the first actively-shielded whole-body 7T MRI scanners in the US for research use, wet lab space for associated Auburn University units and local medical groups and the MRI Educational Training Center.
Auburn University’s Center for Polymers and Advanced Composites features at least seven types of 3D Printers. Investigators leverage these printers for cross-sector additive manufacturing - from building aeronautical components to health-sector products. To learn more about 3D Printing at Auburn, visit the ME3D link above or contact
Tulane National Primate Research Center
Tulane National Primate Research Center (TNPRC) improves human and animal health through basic and applied biomedical research. As one of the seven National Primate Research Centers funded by the NIH, the TNPRC is committed to discovering causes, preventions, treatments, and cures that allow people around the world to live longer, healthier lives. Primary research interests include developing vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tools for infectious diseases such as AIDS, Lyme disease, malaria and TB.
The HudsonAlpha Genomic Services Lab is now HudsonAlpha Discovery, a division of Discovery Life Sciences. HudsonAlpha Discovery is a globally recognized service laboratory that leverages the most current genomic research technologies to comprehensively support discovery, translational, and clinical research. The HudsonAlpha Discovery’s expertise focuses on high-throughput sequencing, workflow optimization, and developing cutting-edge analytical pipelines.
UAB Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility
The Tecnai F20 microscope is available for use as a core service. A recent upgrade to the Gatan K2 direct electron detector and SerialEM automated acquisition software enables near-atomic resolution imaging for suitable specimens as small as 150 kDa.
Southern Research High-Throughput Screening Center
The High-Throughput Screening Center, maintained by Southern Research Drug Discovery, provides screening for collaborative and contracted research projects. With approximately 750,000 coded compounds, robotics, equipment monitoring and an informatics pipeline, the Center is able to screen and drive lead generation using multimodal assays under BSL-2 and BSL-3 containment.
The Metabolic Kitchen’s dieticians use a nutrition analysis program to precisely plan menus and recipes to meet clinical study protocol requirements, while research specialists and food service workers prepare meals and meal monitors ensure study compliance. The Kitchen’s Central Database houses study information, food intake and plate waste.
LSU HSC New Orleans – Tigerfish High Performance Computing
LSU HSC New Orleans high performance computer cluster named “Tigerfish” facilitates access to research computing for computational analysis and educational programs. Tigerfish is joined into the Open Science Grid, which helps support open access to high-performance computing nationwide.
The Precision Medicine Laboratory at LSU HSC New Orleans School of Medicine is a CLIA-certified clinical and clinical research lab whose operations are jointly supported via the Department of Genetics and Department of Pathology. Along with running molecular epidemiology studies, the lab has capacity to run additional collaborative studies focused on SARS-CoV-2. Clinical cancer transciptomic applications are expected in the near future. For more information, please contact
The Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) is an NIH-funded, state-based outreach and engagement effort in ethnic and racial minority communities disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The NIH CEAL program supports teams in 11 states, including Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, each using a multi-modal approach to
1) identify trusted sources of information and strategies to counter misinformation, distrust, and skepticism of COVID-19 information and guidelines
2) evaluate the effectiveness of communication strategies to deliver health information, and
3) overcome barriers to clinical trial participation and vaccination among disproportionately affected populations.
Researchers across the CCTS Partner Network are advancing the goals of CEAL.
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Sharing Strategies Across Our Region
Sharing Strategies Across Our Region
The CCTS Southern Commonweal serves as the interstate platform for sharing successful CEAL strategies in engagement, communication, and recruitment in the southeast. Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana are all represented in the Southern Commonweal, a CCTS initiative designed to drive conversation and enhance partnerships that ameliorate our common health challenges in the Deep South.
Partners in Alabama, including the UAB Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Center, Acclinate Genetics, Auburn University, the Alabama Department of Public Health, Jefferson County Department of Public Health, Tuskegee University, the University of Alabama, the University of South Alabama, City of Bessemer, City of Prichard, and the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity (JCCEO), play critical roles in dissemination, training community health advocates, survey implementation, and educational outreach for Alabama CEAL.
(Register at the bottom of this page to view these free educational video
resources on COVID-19 and vaccines, presented by the AL CEAL.
The Mississippi CEAL team includes researchers from CCTS Partner University of Mississippi Medical Center, the Mississippi State Department of Health, Tougaloo College, and the University of Southern Mississippi.Lousiana CEAL is a collaborative effort of Louisiana universities, including CCTS Partner Tulane University, in partnership with federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), faith-based organizations, community pharmacies, the Urban League of Louisiana, and the Skin You’re In (TSYI) project, in coordination with the Louisiana Department of Health.
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Supporting and Expanding Community Outreach
Supporting and Expanding Community Outreach
The Alabama CEAL program is complemented by the efforts underway by the Hub’s Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics in Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) initiative. This effort, to maximize reach, effectiveness, and sustainability of SARS-CoV-2 testing and mitigation with underserved communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, leverages expertise in infectious diseases and relationships with federally qualified health centers across Alabama by the UAB Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). RADx-UP initiatives are also underway at a local level, spearhead by the UAB Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center, the CCTS and the Jefferson County Department of Health.
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CEAL Resources
CEAL Resources
Alabama CEAL: https://sites.uab.edu/ceal/
Louisiana CEAL: https://haltcovidla.com/about/
Mississippi CEAL: https://www.umc.edu/Research/Centers-and-Institutes/External-Designation-Centers/Mississippi-Center-for-Clinical-and-Translational-Research/Cores-and-Institutes/NIH-Community-Alliance-CEAL-Against-COVID-19-Disparities/About-CEAL.html
NIH CEAL: https://covid19community.nih.gov/
Through our signature Undiagnosed Patient Program (UDP), the CCTS works with partners across the network to evaluate patients with chronic, undiagnosed diseases. By providing access to sophisticated DNA sequencing (whole genome and/or whole exome) and a multidisciplinary medical team, we help find answers for patients with rare or unusual conditions that have defied diagnosis. To date, 81 of the 201 patients evaluated by our UDP have been successfully diagnosed.
To learn more about our other Genomic Medicine initiatives, click here.
The CCTS Hub works with regional partners to facilitate and promote unique research opportunities. Through the Academic Drug Discovery and Device Development Program (AD4), CCTS investigators can access the leading-edge, high through-put screening and drug development capacity at Southern Research (SR) to assay new molecular targets, develop effective screens for novel targets, accelerate potential therapies through the development pipeline, and find new applications for existing clinically tested drugs (“re-purposing”).
The CCTS has more recently launched a device development initiative to support the identification and prototyping of medical device applications.
One such project, led by CCTS Partners Drs. Silas Leavesley and Tom Rich from the University of South Alabama (USA),
explores the use of spectral imaging to improve the detection of cancerous lesions in the colon. This CCTS video provides an in-depth
look at this exciting collaboration.
Both drug and device programs are supported by multidisciplinary project development teams that provide expertise tailored to the study aims, including medicinal chemistry, high-throughput assay development, engineering, clinical application, and commercialization. The team meets quarterly to guide the project's progress and to troubleshoot obstacles. These discussions are conducted under a master Confidentiality Disclosure Agreement. In some cases, CCTS joins partnering institutions to financially enable assay/prototype development following a rigorous application and vetting process.
As projects mature, the collaborative development and commercialization of a drug or a device becomes the basis of a business agreement between Southern Research (or another company) and the investigator’s institution. Intellectual Property (IP) for drug or device efforts is negotiated between institutions that have a significant inventive contribution to the project. Regardless, such projects may continue to benefit from CCTS-organized consultation and project development.
AD4 represents an expansion of CCTS involvement in the Alabama Drug Discovery Alliance and AIMTech.
To hear about these and other funding opportunities, subscribe to our CCTS Digest.
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