The UAB Heersink School of Medicine Immunology Institute (II) is requesting applications for a voucher program designed to support experiments using high-parameter human immunophenotyping services. 
Investigators interested in leveraging advanced flow cytometry platforms to define immune cell phenotypes and functions in human samples are invited to apply.
Immunophenotyping is a powerful tool for monitoring the molecular, metabolic, phenotypic, and functional characteristics of circulating blood cells. Changes in these cellular attributes can be linked to specific disease manifestations, progression, and treatment response, especially when tracked over time.
As such, immunophenotyping enables the identification of easily monitored biomarkers and cellular signatures that may serve as valuable diagnostic and prognostic indicators. This approach is particularly useful for monitoring patients undergoing immunotherapy, including treatments such as checkpoint inhibitors and targeted immune modulators, which are increasingly used in chronic disease management. This voucher program is intended to accelerate discovery and translational research focused on inflammation, infection, and immunity by providing access to cutting-edge human immune profiling tools.
This program supports the use of the following optimized and validated, high-parameter flow cytometry panels. See details here of fee schedule, panel compositions and identifiable subpopulations.
- PBMC panel – optimized for global immune profiling of up to 64 human immune cell subsets, including monocytes, dendritic cells, NK cells, and lymphocyte subsets.
- B cell panel – designed for deep phenotyping of 22+ subpopulations of memory, naïve, transitional, and activated B cell subsets. Two channels are available for additional surface markers and/or B cell tetramers.
- T cell panels, basic (20 subpopulations) or extended (58 subpopulations) – tailored for characterization of effector, memory, exhausted, follicular helper, and regulatory T cell subsets.
Please submit proposals as a single PDF document (Immunophenotyping Voucher RFA) on the template provided containing a description of the proposed experiment(s), including timeline and milestones of future manuscripts and/or grant submissions. Include the cover page with budget table, experimental narrative, and NIH biosketches for all project Investigators. Each application can request up to $8,000. Funding may only be used within the II ACS core for human immunophenotyping services running the validated panels.
Eligible applicants must hold a full-time UAB faculty appointment at any rank and be a member of the Immunology Institute. We are particularly interested in supporting studies involving human immune profiling, clinical trials, and cohort studies that would benefit from deep immunophenotyping to stratify patients or correlate immune features with clinical outcomes, such as studies in cancer, autoimmune diseases, or emerging infectious diseases. Applications must demonstrate feasibility of completing the proposed work within the available budget and share strong thematic overlap with the research missions of the Immunology Institute.
Applications for the 2026 voucher program are due by 5PM on Friday, March 6, 2026. Awards will be announced by April 2, 2026. Applicants are encouraged to contact Davide Botta at dbotta@uab.edu for guidance regarding panel selection and experimental design prior to submitting an application.
†Funding vouchers to support work for Immunophenotyping Services are also available to members of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center through the OCCC voucher program, O’Neal Invests. Please consider this as a potential funding source if you are not a member of the Immunology Institute, or your research does not align with the research missions of the Immunology Institute.