Members of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s (UAB) Systems Pharmacology AI Research Center (SPARC) provided presentations and talks at the 20^th edition of the MidSouth Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS), one of the largest bioinformatics conferences in the country.

The Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science is happy to announce the remaining scheduled PowerTalks for the spring semester here at UAB! We certainly hope you can join us, either in-person at the Shelby Biomedical Research Center (Room 105) or virtually. These sessions take place each Friday at 10 AM CDT, and for more information about these PowerTalks, please be sure to click the link here. 

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has been awarded a U54 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their initiative, the Common Fund Data Ecosystem (CFDE). The grant, $9.5 million over five years, will be in collaboration with the University of Colorado (CU) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The U54 grant aims to modernize data sharing, integration, and innovation across the biomedical research community, while enhancing interoperability and accessibility of NIH-funded data repositories.

Lurong Pan, Ph.D., found of Ainnonence, Inc., a drug discovery firm that looked to accelerate drug discovery efforts through comprenhensive models, has joined the Systems Pharmacology AI Research Center (SPARC) here at UAB. 

Assistant Professor of Medicine Tiago Colicchio, Ph.D., whose research focuses on increasing the situational awareness of clinicians through the design of electronic clinical documentation systems, joined the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (DBIDS) in 2017 after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in biomedical informatics. Recently, he spoke about his journey to being part of UAB, his passion for electronic health records (EHR), and his overall visions as it relates to the world of informatics in the future.

The Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (DBIDS) hosted their opening symposium at the Hilton Birmingham Hotel on the campus of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Kawasaki disease, a mysterious condition considered the leading cause of acquired heart disease among developed countries, is now the focus of a whole-genomic sequencing study that details a variety of genetic variations associated with non-responsiveness to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment. As part of this study, Chief Bioinformatics Officer Jake Chen, Ph.D. is servicing as a collaborator for this project.

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The Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (DBIDS) recently became the 28th academic department of the Heersink School of Medicine, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

We spoke with Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Chair of the DBIDS, James Cimino, MD, to gather his perspective on the transition from an institute to a department, as well his visions for the department's future.

The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees approved the creation of the UAB Systems Pharmacology Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research Center (SPARC). SPARC, in partnership with the Heersink School of Medicine (HSOM) and the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS), will advance the use of AI, systems biology, and quantitative pharmacology in drug discovery through research innovation and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Chief Bioinformatics Officer Jake Chen, Ph.D. was honored with the Pioneer Award during the Global Technology Innovation Summit, hosted by the China Association for Science and Technology in the United States (CAST-USA).

The award, one of the most significant within academia and industry, recognizes the academic achievements and groundbreaking contributions of Chinese scientists globally throughout various fields.  

The 31st edition of the Summit featured several prominent experts and scholars, with tremendous presentations highlighting technological innovation. The event received high praise and widespread attention from multiple scientific, academic, and overseas Chinese communities.

During the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) 2023 Annual Symposium in New Orleans, Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (DBIDS) James Cimino, M.D. was named Treasurer of the AMIA Board of Directors.

Chief Bioinformatics Officer Jake Chen, Ph.D. served as the program co-chair of the Bridge2AI Fall 2023 Face-to-Face Leadership Meeting, held November 6th-7th on the campus of UCLA.

Members of the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (DBIDS) were on hand as participants of the Community Engagement Initiative (CEI) Symposium, held on October 31^st at the Hilton Birmingham Downtown at UAB.

The 5^th Annual Data Sciences Hackathon was held virtually over the course of two days on September 9^th and 10^th, hosted by the UAB Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (DBIDS) in conjunction with the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS). External sponsors for the event included the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.

John Osborne, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science, recently received a notice of award for a U24 supplement to develop a cancer algorithm predicting the severity of cancer recurrence in patients. The work will build on previously funded work to identify recurrence retrospectively in UAB cancer patients using structured EHR data and clinical text. 

Jake Chen, Ph.D., Chief Bioinformatics Officer of the UAB Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science, served as the session chair of Representational Learning in Genome Biology and Precision Medicine during the Great Lakes Bioinformatics (GLBIO) Conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Sooryanarayana Varambally, Ph.D., MBA, professor in the Department of Pathology's Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology and adjunct faculty at the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science, was one of 16 faculty members who were named the winners of the 2023 Dean's Excellence Awards for Faculty.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham hosted the Service Learning and Undergraduate Research Expo from April 17^th through April 21^st. Maryam Choucha, a Bioinformatics student, received first place at the 2023 Spring Expo in the Physical and Applied Sciences category, for her online poster presentation entitled "Curating Genes and Network Models for Glioblastoma Drug Discovery."

The Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science, along with the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS), hosted the 7^th Annual Translational and Transformative Informatics Symposium on April 21st, with the theme of “Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Medicine and Healthcare”.

The UAB Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) graduate program has been the recipient of seven Blazer Fellowships in 2022, and a Bioinformatics student recently etched his name as a part of this notable accomplishment.