Find a K12 Mentor - Center for AIDS Research

Our research and training base is anchored within a dynamic interdisciplinary environment primarily drawn from four UAB Schools (Medicine, Public Health, Nursing and Health Professions) including 27 Primary Mentors and 34 Associate Mentors.
Our training capacity is enhanced by the unique University-wide Interdisciplinary Research Centers (UWIRCs) Program at UAB.
UAB has a large research base available for training in HIV and NHLBI-targeted diseases.
Our K12 mentors have successfully competed for over $80 million (2018 direct costs) in peer-reviewed federal funding from NIH, CDC, AHRQ, CMS, and the VA.

Below is a listing of mentors who are committed to this program. Other mentors who are not listed may also be considered. Let us know if you need help finding a mentor.

View our mentor list or email Mary Thielen to request help to find a mentor.

K12 Mentors
Edward Acosta, PharmD	Professor and Director, Division of Clinical Pharmacology	Quantitative pharmacology, noncompartmental pharmacokinetic analyses, and pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and drug-disease models
Anupam Agarwal, MD	Medicine/Nephrology	Regulation of hemeoxygenase gene expression in kidney and vascular disease
Namasivayam Ambalavanan, MD	Professor of Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics	Neonatal-perinatal medicine relevant to lung development and injury
Andre Ballesteros-Tato, PhD	Assistant Professor, Scientist, UAB Center for AIDS Research	Cellular interactions, environmental cues and molecular mechanisms that control the capacity of distinct populations of dendritic cells to regulate
Marcas Bamman, PhD	Medicine/Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology	Exercise rehabilitation/muscle biology /regenerative medicine
Susan Bellis, PhD	Professor, Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology	Role of sialylation in regulating integrin-mediated cell adhesion, motility and cell survival; development of biomimetic biomaterials for orthopedic applications
Suresh Boppana, MD	Professor, Pediatrics & Microbiology	Congenital cytomegalovirus infections
Thomas Buford, PhD	Associate Professor, Associate Director, UAB Center for Exercise Medicine	Preserving the health and independence of older adults through interdisciplinary research related to the prevention of age-related physical disability
David Calhoun, MD	Medicine/Cardiology	Mechanisms of Resistant and Refractory Hypertension
April P. Carson, PhD	Associate Professor, Epidemiology	Social, behavioral, and clinical factors related to the occurrence of diabetes and CVD complications
Gary Cutter, PhD	Biostatistics	Clinical trials, epidemiological studies, risk assessment, Developing alternative approaches to measuring outcome of studies
Victor Darley-Usmar, PhD	Professor, Department of Pathology	Failure of vasculature, production of free radicals and their interactions, molecular events controlling nitric oxide signaling pathways
Mark T. Dransfield, MD	Medicine/Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care	Clinical Trials, Epidemiology and outcomes of COPD
Lloyd J. Edwards, PhD	Professor and Chair, Department of Biostatistics	Derivation of techniques for computation of power, control of type I error, and measuring model fit in linear and generalized linear mixed models
Mona N. Fouad, MD	Medicine/Preventive Medicine	Health Disparities
Amit Gaggar, MD, PhD	Professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine	Proteases and neutrophilic airway inflammation, proteases and ion transportation, and the regulation of surfactant protein D by airway proteases
W. Timothy Garvey, MD	Professor and Chair, Department of Nutrition Sciences, Senior Scientist, Nutrition Obesity Research Center	Molecular, metabolic, and genetic basis of type 2 diabetes mellitus, insulin resistance, and obesity
Paul G. Goepfert, MD	Medicine	T cell immunology and vaccine design
Orlando M. Gutiérrez, MD	Medicine/Nephrology	Chronic kidney disease
Kirk M. Habegger, PhD	Assistant Professor, Division of Endocrinology	Metabolism in diabetes and obesity, translational aspects of neuroendocrinology
Ganesh Halade, PhD	Assistant Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Disease	Lipid remodeling and immune cell kinetics in acute and chronic heart failure pathology
Zdenek Hel, PhD	Pathology	HIV pathogenesis
George Howard, DrPH	Professor, Department of Biostatistics	Analysis of CVD and cerebrovascular risk factors, development and application of statistical techniques in clinical trials and epidemiological studies
Virginia J. Howard, PhD	Professor, Department of Epidemiology	Stroke and health and geographic disparities
Edward W. Inscho, PhD	Professor, Division of Nephrology	Physiological mechanisms that underpin normal renal hemodynamics and how pathophysiological conditions negatively impact those mechanisms
Marguerite (Ryan) Irvin, PhD, MS	Epidemiology	Genetic epidemiology
Pauline E. Jolly, PhD	Professor, Department of Epidemiology	Immunopathogenesis of HIV and lentiviruses in the area of immune responses to infection
Mirjam-Colette Kempf, PhD, MPH	Nursing	Barriers to HIV testing and treatment among vulnerable populations
Robert P. Kimberly, MD	Medicine/Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology	Translational research in autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and the systemic vasculitides
Robin Gaines Lanzi, PhD	Professor, Department of Health Behavior, Co-Director, CFAR Behavioral and Community Sciences Core	Reducing family and child/adolescent health disparities, qualitative and mixed methods for assessing health related attitudes and behaviors
Emily B. Levitan, ScD	Epidemiology	Cardiovascular disease prevention and treatment, cardiometabolic health among people living with HIV, epidemiologic and statistical methods relevant to HIV
Cora E. Lewis, MD, MSPH, FACP, FAHA	Epidemiology	CVD epidemiology and prevention
Nita A. Limdi, Pharm D, PhD, MSPH, FAHA	Neurology	Pharmacogenomics Coagulation Personalized Medicine Epidemiology
Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH	Medicine/Infectious Diseases	HIV/HIV Prevention
John D. Mountz, PhD, MD	Professor, Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology	Dysregulation in apoptosis and the development of autoimmune diseases
Michael J. Mugavero, MD	Medicine/Infectious Diseases	HIV Treatment and Prevention Health Services and Outcomes Research
Paul Muntner, PhD	Epidemiology	Cardiovascular disease prevention and outcomes
Christina Ochsenbauer, PhD	Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology and Oncology	Interaction of HIV-1 with cells of mucosal origins, development of novel robust tools to study HIV-1 infection and inhibition thereof
Suzanne Oparil, MD	Medicine/Cardiology	Assessment of vascular function with various forms of vascular disease, including hypertension, diabetes, Atherosclerotic peripheral vascular disease, chronic kidney disease, and HIV disease with associated premature vasculopathy
E. Turner Overton, MD	Medicine/Infectious Diseases	Metabolic complications of HIV
Sumanth D. Prabhu, MD	Medicine/Cardiology	Heart failure
Rakesh Pravinchandra Patel, PhD	Professor, Interim Vice Chair, Department of Pathology	Mechanisms linking reactive species to inflammatory injury in different tissues
David Pollock, PhD	NRTC Endowed Professor and Director, Cardio-Renal Physiology and Medicine, Division of Nephrology	Chronic assessment of blood pressure, hemodynamics, and renal function in rodent models of hypertension and kidney disease
Jennifer Pollock, PhD	Medicine/Nephrology	Role of nitric oxide in vascular and renal function
Sasanka Ramanadham, PhD	Professor, Cell, Developmental, and Integrative Biology	Heart, diabetes, and AIDS-related metabolic complications
James L. Raper, DSN, CRNP, JD	Professor, Medicine and Nursing, Division of Infectious Diseases	Improving access to care for HIV populations
Steve Rowe, MD, PhD	Professor of Pulmonary Medicine and Director, Cystic Fibrosis Research Center	Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis, translational research, clinical trials.
Kenneth G. Saag, MD, MSc	Medicine/Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology	Evidence implementation; real world clinical trials, Large databases
Michael S. Saag, MD	Medicine/Infectious Diseases	HIV Clinical Care, Treatment, HCV
Isabel Scarinci, PhD, MPH	Medicine/ Preventive Medicine	Application of behavioral science to public health by promoting behavior change at the population level
Palaniappan Sethu, PhD	Associate Professor, Div of Cardiology	Tissue engineering and fluid mechanics
James M. Shikany, DrPH	Professor, Division of Preventive Medicine	Diet and prevention of chronic disease including cancer and CVD
Sadeep Shrestha, PhD	Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology	Epidemiology, infectogenomics, vaccinogenomics, pharmacogenetics, and immunogenetics and sequelae of HIV and immune-related complications
Chad Steele, PhD	Inaugural Endowed Professor, Lung Immunology	Lung immune responses during acute vs. chronic exposure to the opportunistic fungal pathogen Aspergillus fumigatus
Janet M. Turan, PhD, MPH	Health Care Organization and Policy	Psychosocial Barriers to HIV Prevention and Treatment
C. Roger White, PhD	Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Disease	Characterize inflammatory mechanisms that contribute to cardiovascular injury under acute and chronic conditions
Craig M. Wilson, MD	Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Director, Sparkman Center for Global Health, SOPH	HIV prevention programs in sub-Saharan Africa and clinical and laboratory technical assistance to the UAB PEPFAR initiative in Zambia
Martin E. Young, DPhil	Medicine/ Cardiovascular Disease	Understanding how circadian clocks impact both cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology
Lufang Zhou, PhD	Associate Professor, Division of Cardiovascular Disease	Pathophysiology and therapeutics of oxidative stress related to diseases of mitochondrial origin