Upcoming CCTS Events
On Wednesday, April 22, we welcome Anthony Atala, MD, to campus. Dr. Atala will deliver the 24th Annual Paulette Shirey Pritchett Endowed Lecture in Pathology, on "Regenerative Medicine: New Approaches to Healthcare.”Featuring: Anthony Atala, MD
Director, Wake Forest institute for Regenerative Medicine
Wednesday, April 22
2pm
Margaret Cameron Spain Auditorium (619 19th Street South)
Dr. Anthony Atala is the director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the W.H. Boyce Professor and Chair of the Department of Urology at Wake Forest University, where his work focuses on growing and regenerating tissues and organs. His team engineered the first lab-grown organ to be implanted into a human—a bladder—and is developing experimental fabrication technology that can "print" human tissue on demand.
In 2007, Atala and a team of Harvard University researchers showed that stem cells can be harvested from the amniotic fluid of pregnant women. This and other breakthroughs in the development of smart bio-materials and tissue fabrication technology promises to revolutionize the practice of medicine.
Dr. Atala has given two TED Talks on the subject of regenerative medicine, on growing new organs, and printing a human kidney.
This endowed lecture series is named in honor of Dr. Paulette Shirey Pritchett. Dr. Pritchett was a highly respected, young member of the UAB Department of Pathology when she unexpectedly passed away on August 4, 1984. Dr. Pritchett was a native Alabamian, who obtained her medical degree from the University of Alabama where she was awarded the Stewart Graves Award and the William Boyd Medal, both given for demonstrated excellence in Pathology. She was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Pathology at UAB in 1975. She was a Surgical Pathologist at UAB and later at Cooper Green Hospital. She participated in the activities of the UAB Department of Pathology first as a Clinical Assistant Professor and subsequently as a Clinical Associate Professor, an appointment she held until her untimely death. Dr. Robert Pritchett, her husband and a practicing dermatologist, provided financial support to the University in her name to establish this lectureship. We thank Dr. Pritchett and members of his family for making this lectureship possible.
Community Driven Innovation Gets a Boost
April 9, 2015by Javacia Harris Bowser - Photos by Steve Wood
Dr. Anthony Hood and Robin Anthony Hood, PhD, Assistant Professor in the UAB Collat School of Business, Department of Management, Information Systems and Quantitative Methods was one of this year's Community Health Innovation Award winners.Anthony Hood, Ph.D. and his wife Robin, often walk or drive through their Bush Hills neighborhood to admire the beautiful homes lining the streets. But they are also disheartened by how many homes appear unoccupied and abandoned.
So Hood and his wife are doing something about it. They developed NHabit Bush Hills, a grassroots initiative to gather and disseminate information to ensure that neighborhood properties are occupied and properly maintained. “We want to be the central information hub for Bush Hills,” Hood says. “A lot of information about the neighborhood is out there, but nobody has put it together to tell a complete story. “
Hood and his wife were able to launch NHabit Bush Hills thanks to the Community Health Innovation Awards (CHIA), an annual grant competition from the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS). Administered by the CCTS One Great Community council, the awards encourage local organizations to develop clever, creative solutions to public-health challenges in Birmingham-area neighborhoods.
With a $15,000 CHIA grant, Hood and his wife developed a database of abandoned Bush Hills homes. Then they notified property owners, hoping to learn how the city and local organizations could help resolve any issues with the vacant houses. “CHIA has raised the profile of what we’re doing,” says Hood, an assistant professor in UAB’s Collat School of Business. “People know about us, and we’ve built a lot of relationships.”
David VanWilliams (second from right) teaches job skills to Inglenook’s young adults, including (left to right) Ronny Thompson, Johnathan Woods, and Floyd O'Nea
Taking a Chance:
The seven newest CHIA winners were chosen last fall by a panel of five judges representing business, health care, public health, education, and nonprofit and private sectors. Some of their smart solutions include using art, gardens, light, and sound to create a safer Ensley; transforming a soup kitchen into a healthy food café to train junior chef interns; and promoting walking for transportation and fitness via smartphone apps and social media. Several UAB schools and centers contributed a total of $76,500 for grants.
Started in 2012, CHIA is no ordinary grant-making process, says Shauntice Allen, Ph.D., CCTS program manager for One Great Community. Applicants are matched with mentors and attend workshops to help them brainstorm unique ways to tackle community issues. Applicants also have the opportunity to make their case not only on paper, but through an oral presentation as well.
But what truly separates CHIA from other grant programs is its willingness to take chances, Allen says. “From a funding perspective, some of these organizations may be viewed as high risk, meaning they’ve never done this before,” Allen explains. “They may not even be well organized as an entity, but the idea is interesting, it’s something that is innovative, and it could really make a difference.”
Constructing a Brighter Future:
For years David VanWilliams, a master carpenter in Birmingham, had dreams of starting a program that would teach carpentry to young adults in Birmingham. With a $25,000 grant from CHIA, he was able to launch the Community Carpentry Project in the Inglenook neighborhood in March 2014. The inaugural class of 12 students, ages 18 to 25, completed the program with enough knowledge and training to be qualified for a job as a carpenter’s helper or to pursue advanced carpentry education.
“We have a lot of young people who, because they can’t get jobs, get frustrated and get involved in crime and violence, and this doesn’t have to be,” VanWilliams says. With his program’s training, young adults can now take advantage of “jobs that are happening all around them, whether it’s a restaurant, bridge, or high-rise building being built or a house being remodeled in the neighborhood,” he adds.
The carpentry project recently welcomed 12 new students, and VanWilliams also hopes to develop an after-school program for high school students and a Saturday program for students ages 10 to 13. “We would not have been able to implement this,” VanWilliams says, “had it not been for CHIA supporting our project.”
This article can also be found in UAB Magazine.
ne who works with the National Institutes of Health. They are: Changes to the NIH biosketch (goes into effect for grants due starting Jan. 25, 2015); a streamlined IRB review process for multi-site clinical trials, and proposed HHS regulation and NIH policy to further the impact of clinical trials research. Following are excerpts from her posts at her blog, “Rock Talk” available at: http://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/category/blog
Implementing the Modified NIH Biosketch Format
- See more at: http://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/category/blog/#sthash.jPDnL4zH.dpuf
A Proposed HHS Regulation and NIH Policy to Further the Impact of Clinical Trials Research
Clinical trials play a vital role in transforming scientific research into medical interventions to improve human health. Transparency about the clinical trials underway and their subsequent results ensure potential participants can make informed decisions about potential trial participation and know how their participation may have helped others. …. Today, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced proposed regulations to implement the clinical trial reporting requirements established by the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act (FDAAA) of 2007. …. Importantly, today NIH also announced a proposal to apply these same proposed requirements to all NIH-funded clinical trials, whether subject to FDAAA or not. The proposed policy would require that every NIH-funded clinical trial be registered…. Continue reading →
- See more at: http://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/category/blog/#sthash.jPDnL4zH.dpuf
Streamlining IRB Review of Multi-Site Clinical Research Studies
For many decades now the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and consequently NIH, has required institutional review board (IRB) review of research involving human subjects. …. as the clinical research landscape evolves, so should our policies to assure that NIH-funded research can more quickly generate research results without compromising protections for those who volunteer to participate in clinical studies. …. Today, NIH released a draft policy proposing that all NIH-funded multi-site clinical studies carried out in the US should use a single IRB’s review, rather than working through the IRB approval process of each participating institution. …. Continue reading →
- See more at: http://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/category/blog/#sthash.jPDnL4zH.dpuf
Three new initiatives in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine are paving the way for significant growth and acceleration of personalized medicine in Alabama, the region and beyond.
On February 4 and 5, Marcas Bamman, PhD, Director of the UAB Center for Exercise Medicine, hosted the first face-to-face meeting of the newly implemented National Exercise Clinical Trials Network (NExTNet).
Read more: Moving Toward Large-Scale Exercise Medicine Clinical Trials