Southern All of Us Network
Principal Investigator (PI): Bruce Korf
Informatics Lead: James Cimino
In collaboration with the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, this program is aimed at preventing and treating disease, including certain types of cancer, heart problems, and genetic disorders. The AGHI also includes a major focus on research, through which data from test results will be used to advance scientific understanding of the role that genes play in health and disease.
Press Release Link: https://www.joinallofus.org/southern
Duration of Grant: 7/1/2018 – 4/30/2024
Center for Clinical and Translational Science
PI: Robert P. Kimberly
Informatics Director: James Cimino
Co-Investigators: Jake Chen, Amy Wang
The vision of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) is to reduce health disparities in diseases disproportionately represented within the Deep South as we accelerate discovery to improve human health. To accomplish this, the CCTS will 1) develop a vibrant, diverse clinical and translational research workforce, 2) catalyze a collaborative, integrated data analytics and informatics ecosystem, 3) work closely with local constituencies to address health issues of particular significance to our region and will share best practices in pursuit of community engaged studies to enhance culturally sensitive participation, safety, confidentiality and effectiveness, 4) support the ethical conduct of scientifically rigorous pilot and clinical research, and 5) use quantitative and qualitative assessment and feedback to assure that training and research programs meet the needs of its scientific constituencies and the goals of the CCTS.
Press Release Link: https://www.uab.edu/ccts/
Duration of Grant: 5/6/2019 – 4/30/2024
Integrating Genomic Risk Assessment for Chronic Disease Management in a Diverse Population – the eMERGE Consortium
PI’s: Nita Limdi, James Cimino
The project aims to develop race-specific genomic risk assessments, establish methods to implement these assessments and management in clinical care is the vital first step to leverage the power of genomics to prevent disease. In the United States, 60% of adults have at least one chronic disease and 40% have two or more. Although research has identified genomic signatures of common diseases, genomic risk assessments are not used in clinical care to identify, and if appropriate, pre-treat patients at high risk for developing disease.
Press Release Link: https://grantome.com/grant/NIH/U01-HG011167-01
Duration of Grant: 7/1/2020 – 4/30/2025
CRITICAL: Collaborative Resource for Intensive care Translational science, Informatics, Comprehensive Analytics, and Learning
PI: Jim Cimino
Working with Northwestern University, we aim to establish a large cross-CTSA collaborative critical care data sharing by leveraging the existing CTSA collaborative networks. With the diversified racial, ethnic and geographic profiles from the above CTSAs, we will be able to support fair and generalizable algorithms for advanced patient monitoring and decision support. The proposed project will provide best practice guidance to and set up exemplary examples for nationwide CTSAs. It will also support the cultivation of next generation medical AI researchers.
Press Release Link: https://www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/projects/critical-collaborative-resource-for-intensive-care-translational-
Duration of Grant: 8/15/2021 – 7/31/2025
Heterogeneity in African Ancestry SLE: Implications for Targeted Therapy
PI’s: Alexander Rosenberg, Chris Scharer
Also known as “Bioinformatics, Data Management and Integration,” the project has the goal of developing an informatics environment (data warehouse, integrative and analytical tools) for many types of data that will be collected for this cohort (e.g. flow cytometry, RNAseq, ATACseq, DNA methylation, single cell RNAseq and repertoire sequencing). The team on this project will coordinate program-wide ‘omics data processing, data management and downstream analysis, while assisting in requirements assessment, data modeling, data storage strategies, implementation, and ETL process development.
Press Release Link: How to Better Treat Lupus in Black Patients
Duration of Grant: 9/1/2021 – 8/30/2024
Building and InnovatinG: Digital heAlth Technology and Analytics (BIGDATA)
PI: James Willig
Co-Investigator: Amy Wang
The goal of this research core is to harness mobile and digital health technologies, informatics, real-world data, and advanced analytics to support broad base of investigators both within and outside UAB. The main priority is to bring innovative informatics and translational tools and methods to the research community with a focus on promoting innovative and synergistic research in rheumatologic and musculoskeletal diseases.
Duration of Grant: 9/15/2020 – 7/31/2024
Cancer Deep Phenotyping from Electronic Medical Records
PI: Gergana Savova
Co-Investigator: John Osborne
This project intends to evaluate and extend “deep phenotyping” reportable cancer case detection based on DeepPhe, by expanding previous Natural Language Processing and machine learning work on reportable case detection to codify both reportable cancer and cancer recurrence vocabularies and incorporate them into the DeepPhe Ontology. A detection algorithm will be implemented for cancer recurrence mentions, episodes and patients in DeepPhe and with the purpose of evaluating its ability to detect recurrence in previously detected reportable cancer cases at UAB.
Duration of Grant: 09/01/2021 - 08/31/2023
Building and InnovatinG: Digital heALTH Technology and Analytics (BIGDATA)
PI: Jeffrey R. Curtis
Co-Investigator: John Osborne
Through the encompassing of three distinct and synergistic cores (Data Capture and Integration [DCI] Resource Core, Methodologic, and Administrative), the BIGDATA CCCR will bring innovative HIT tools and methods to the research community to effectively advance the NIAMS mission. Methods of advancing the NIAMS mission will include the following: promotion of innovative and musculoskeletal disease-focused research while expediting clinical, translational and informatics-related projects; fostering the development, refinement, and application of existing and de novo digital technology data through our Data Capture and Integration Core, and promote the training of both junior and established clinical and translational investigators in the current methods of clinical informatics and digital health tools applicable to the NIAMS mission through diverse enrichment activities overseen by our Administrative Core.
Duration of Project: 09/15/2020 - 07/31/2024
Opioid Use Disorder Center of Excellence
PI: Sue Feldman
Co-Investigator: John Osborne
The goal of this project is to support the identification and treatment of opiate use disorder cases in Alabama.
Duration of Project: 10/01/2021 - 9/30/2026
Structural Variation Analysis With and Without a Reference Genome
PI: Zechen Chong
This project aims to develop efficient algorithms to SV analysis for organisms both with and without a reference and to study the SV formation mechanisms based on global genomic architecture, while obtaining accurate SV characterization and understanding their formation mechanisms using new sequencing data.
Duration of Grant/Project: 7/1/2020 – 6/30/2025