UAB to Create New Center to Study Developmental Disabilities

UAB’s (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Civitan International Research Center(CIRC) will announce a major grant from the federal government to establish a new research center dedicated to finding new treatments for developmental disabilities such as autism, Rett Syndrome, cerebral palsy and rare genetic diseases.

September 15, 2008

UAB's (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Civitan International Research Center(CIRC) will announce a major grant from the federal government to establish a new research center dedicated to finding new treatments for developmental disabilities such as autism, Rett Syndrome, cerebral palsy and rare genetic diseases.

The announcement will take place Tuesday, September 16 at 10 a.m. at the 1st floor conference room of the Civitan International Research Center, corner of 18th St.. and 6th Ave. South. UAB media relations staff will meet media crews at the building's front door.

Dr. Alan Percy, M.D., professor of pediatric neurology, will head the new UAB Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, along with Harald Sontheimer, Ph.D., professor of neurobiology and director of the CIRC and Dr. Bruce Korf, M.D., Ph.D., professor and chair of the UAB Department of Genetics.

The new center builds on and replaces the former UAB Mental Retardation Research Center. The IDDRC will house 74 investigators from 7 UAB schools and 19 departments currently involved in 60 research projects.