University of Alabama at Birmingham graduate student and Department of Surgery Galli Lab researcher Yanqi Zhu recently won the Spark Award from the UAB Center for AIDS Research.

Funded by the Spark Award, Zhu recently presented a poster and a reaserch talk at the Gordon Research Conference on Membrane Transport Proteins in Newry, Maine. His work is titled “HIV- Tat Disrupts Amphetamine-induced Non-vesicular Dopamine Release."

Zhu works under the leadership of UAB Department of Surgery Professor Aurelio Galli, Ph.D., D.Sc., and the Galli Lab. “I am very proud of the work Yanqi has done,” says Galli. “It is a great honor to be selected to receive a Spark Award, and we look forward to seeing all that he will continue to accomplish.”

Supported by the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine Center for AIDS Research, the Spark Awards provide funding to support HIV research related expenses and support investigators who have an accepted abstract to attend a conference.