Lynn Matthews, M.D., MPH, is an associate professor in the UAB Division of Infectious Diseases and the associate director for Research and Partnerships for the Mary Heersink Institute for Global Health. Her work centers around sexual health in the context of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), HIV prevention, and the importance of reproductive rights for people living with HIV in Uganda, South Africa, and the United States.

Matthews became interested in risk reduction for HIV-serodifferent couples who choose to conceive while working as an internal medicine resident in Rwanda. Since 2011, Matthews has worked to develop and test interventions that reduce HIV in the context of sexual and reproductive health for men and women in Uganda and South Africa. Since joining the UAB faculty in 2019, she has since expanded the scope of her research to address PrEP for Black adolescent girls and young women, HIV testing, and SARS-CoV2 in Alabama.

Matthews’ work in the southeastern U.S. adapts and implements strategies to promote HIV testing, PrEP uptake, and linkage to HIV care. Her projects largely focus on developing programs to make HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, accessible and feasible for women planning for, with, or post-pregnancy. This work in Alabama is focused on implementing evidence-based interventions to improve the regional HIV care cascade and to work creatively and effectively with community partners to end the HIV epidemic.

Matthews completed her undergraduate education at Swarthmore College, followed by a semester as a health educator at a clinic in Miami, where she became an HIV counselor. After a post-graduate year volunteering as a Swarthmore Foundation scholar in a clinic in rural Honduras, she attended medical school at the University of Miami before moving to Boston to complete internal medicine residency (Brigham and Women’s Hospital), Schwartz global health fellowship (Massachusetts General Hospital and McCord Hospital, Durban, South Africa), infectious disease fellowship (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center), and serve as Infectious Disease faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Scholar's Profile

Jarrod Barnes, Ph.D., M.B.A., is an assistant professor in the UAB Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine. He began his work at UAB in 2017. Barnes’ research is focused on dysregulated glucose metabolism and its role in aberrant glycosylation in pulmonary vascular disease. Specifically, his work has demonstrated that glucose dysregulation impacts glycosylation and glycosyltransferases that drive cell proliferation in idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH). His research explores the molecular mechanisms that regulate metabolism and glycosylation in IPAH, as well as other pulmonary diseases including COPD and Cystic Fibrosis. Barnes’ laboratory not only engages in novel research, but also provides training and mentorship for students studying the fields of lung biology and glycobiology.

Barnes trained in Glycobiology at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center at the University of Georgia. He was then recruited to the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, where he combined his basic research experiences with more translational approaches in the Department of Pathobiology within the Lerner Research Institute. While working at the Cleveland Clinic, Barnes became a Research Associate and the Director of the Pulmonary Vascular Disease Center of Excellence Biorepository.

Timmy Lee, M.D, M.S.P.H., is a professor in the UAB Division of Nephrology and Section Chief of Nephrology at the Birmingham VA Medical Center. He also serves as Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Lee has been involved in hemodialysis vascular access research since 2002. He has active clinical trials, large epidemiologic studies in dialysis vascular access, and a laboratory-based translational research program in dialysis vascular access. The goal of his research program is to develop novel therapeutics to prevent and treat complications of hemodialysis vascular access dysfunction and to improve the delivery and processes of care for patients requiring hemodialysis.

Lee received his medical degree at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport and completed his internal medicine residency, nephrology fellowship, and Master of Science in Public Health program at UAB.