Outracing an Epidemic

Members of the Diabetes Trust Fund board at the groundbreaking ceremony for UAB's diabetes hospital in 1970.

In 1973, UAB opened the first public, university-affiliated diabetes hospital in the United States. Today, Birmingham is still the place to find the latest ideas in diabetes research and care. UAB’s Comprehensive Diabetes Center brings together researchers whose discoveries are paving the way for new treatments—and, potentially, a cure. The center’s work is especially important as the diabetes epidemic continues to grow in Alabama, which has the nation’s fourth highest rate of the disease.

Last year the National Institutes of Health designated UAB as one of only six Diabetes Research and Training Centers (DRTC) in the country. UAB’s DRTC concentrates on metabolic and vascular research, which is essential to preventing and controlling diabetes and its complications.

This week, UAB Magazine's special 40th anniversary issue looks at genes (and Genes) in all of their many forms and functions, including:

• a coach who outfoxed his opponents on the court;

• gene therapists who are faking out cancer with custom-made viruses;

• scientists who beat the herpes virus at its own game;

• researchers who are crushing cystic fibrosis by repairing and replacing broken genes; and

• dentists who fended off back pain and fatigue with a new approach to patient care.

The online edition of UAB Magazine also has several exclusive features, including a new photo gallery of classic memories from UAB Archives, UAB's first viral video and future predictions from a panel of UAB experts.

Check back each weekday from now through November 16 as we unveil new breakthroughs and other exclusive online content.

Ten-Minute Plays Test Theatre Skills

By Shannon Thomason

Trista Baker and Brenton Bellamy perform in "Darcie" from the 2009 Festival of Ten-Minute Plays. "Darcie" was written by Richard Taylor Campbell and directed by Mel Christian. Photo by Richard Taylor Campbell.

In playwright Lee Shackleford’s world, the script comes first. Before the actors audition or the props are selected, the script must be conceived, written, polished, and perfected.

Shackleford is the UAB Department of Theatre’s playwright-in-residence, and he teaches several scriptwriting classes at UAB. He also is the founder and director of UAB’s edgy, creative, and tremendously popular Festival of Ten-Minute Plays, now in its seventh year.

Each year the process begins in the spring semester, when Shackleford’s students learn the art and craft of writing super-short comedies and dramas. A 10-minute play, he explains, is not a skit or a scene; it must have everything that a longer play has—without the luxury of time.