The 2026 DREAM Award Winners
Max Cooper Award for Career Excellence in Research
The Max Cooper Award is given annually to faculty in the DOM to celebrate researchers that have gained national recognition for important research discoveries over their scientific career. The DREAM Council presented Maria Pisu, Ph.D., with this award in 2026.
A professor in the division of General Internal Medicine and Population Science, Pisu is a trailblazing researcher on the financial toxicity associated with cancer treatment. She was among the first researchers to draw attention to its prevalence, impact, and outcomes, particularly among patients who live in areas with ongoing poverty. She is Multiple Principal Investigator of the UAB CARES Center, where her work in the areas of health economics and financial hardship has a profound impact on the fields of cancer prevention, control, and survivorship.
Pisu’s influence extends broadly to other chronic conditions, and she actively collaborates with 12 multidisciplinary research centers across campus. Her scientific expertise also positioned her to lead the Emotional Well-Being and Economic Burden of Disease (EMOT-ECON) Research Network, which brings together diverse stakeholders to expand the scientific landscape on the emotional consequences of financial hardship.
Mid-Career Award for Excellence in Research
The Mid-Career Award recognizes outstanding research achievements by DOM faculty at the mid-career level. Jodie Dionne, M.D., has received this award for 2026.
An associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Dionne started as a physician with a large clinical workload. However, her passion for research and global health altered her career path. Her research program focuses on testing new ways to improve the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections in women, particularly focused on pregnancy. She has designed and conducted successful multicenter clinical trials with collaborative research teams in North America and Africa.
Dionne’s current research studies focus on the treatment, prevention, and diagnosis of gonorrhea, congenital syphilis, and perinatal hepatitis B. Her work has contributed to defining optimal treatment regimens for T. pallidum. She has also published widely on the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections during pregnancy and characterized risk factors for STI acquisition and adverse birth outcomes.
At UAB, Dionne holds roles and membership in multiple university research centers, including Director of the Infection in Women and Pregnancy Research Program, Associate Scientist at the UAB Center for AIDS Research, and Scientist at the Center for Clinical and Translational Science.
Walter B. Frommeyer, Jr. Fellowship in Investigative Medicine
The Walter B. Frommeyer Jr. Fellowship in Investigative Medicine is an annual career development award designed to foster the development of outstanding physician-scientists through a two-year, intensive, mentored research experience. The DREAM Council selected assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases William Bradford, M.D., MSPH and infectious diseases fellow Kenneth Long, M.D., Ph.D., as the 2026 recipients of this award.
Bradford’s winning project, “Designing an Explainable Clinical Decision Support Tool to Support HIV PrEP Initiation in Acute Care Settings,” aims to promote the prescription of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis directly from acute care settings – including emergency departments and inpatient units – with a focus on people who use drugs.
Bradford will design and test a clinical decision support tool using qualitative methods, human-centered design, and language model-based tools based on key HIV risk behaviors identified in clinical documentation.
Long’s winning project, “Development of a novel RNA-based diagnostic for invasive fungal diseases and the clinical infrastructure for its validation,” will define differential RNA expression across fungal growth stages both in vitro and in well-characterized clinical samples to evaluate RNA targets for future invasive fungal disease diagnostic development.
He will also characterize the impact of stressors present in the lung microenvironment on differential RNA expression and develop discrete cohorts of bronchoalveolar lavages (BALs) of patients at-risk for invasive fungal disease.
J. Edwin Blalock, Ph.D. Career Development Award
The J. Edwin Blalock Ph.D. Career Development Award is designed to develop outstanding junior investigators by supporting a two-year, intensive, mentored research experience. The DREAM Council presented Feroze Ganaie, Ph.D., and Chloe Taub, Ph.D., with this award for 2026.
Ganaie’s proposal, “Capsule malleability as a mechanism of vaccine failure in Streptococcus pneumoniae,” will investigate how sequence variation in the capsule polymerase Wzy and its interaction with the regulatory protein CpsC modulate polymerization specificity to enable serotype switching, a process Ganaie has dubbed “capsule malleability.”
Ganaie, an assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, will define Wzy/CpsC–driven capsule malleability as a mechanism of vaccine escape and disease persistence. He aims for his work to advance understanding of pneumococcal glycobiology and support the development of improved vaccines/therapeutics.
Taub’s proposal, “Digital Innovation to Address Behavioral Health Needs of Cancer Survivors,” will use the commercially available wearable sensor (Oura Ring) to gather passive data from patients undergoing stage I-III breast cancer treatment. Taub, an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Population Science, aims to integrate passive data gathered by the sensor into an existing electronic patient-reported outcome-based remote symptom monitoring program to address sleep concerns and stress management.
Wearables with sensors can serve as a symptom monitoring and intervention tool with opportunity for real-time feedback and dynamic treatment that adjusts type and timing of care based on a person’s changing needs. Taub believes that further study of wearable sensors could provide an excellent option to help cancer patients improve quality of life and overall health outcomes.
The DOM Research Excellence Advancement and Mentoring Council, or DREAM Council, promotes and supports innovative research conducted by the DOM’s talented investigators. The Council is led by Jarrod Barnes, Ph.D., Carmen De Miguel, Ph.D., and Timmy Lee, M.D. Together with 19 dedicated members, the Council oversees the nomination and selection process for a variety of awards to recognize and reward research excellence.