UAB in the News

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  Study underscores importance of preventing risk factors across entire lifespan

  University of Alabama at Birmingham investigators and their colleagues found that the development of risk factors including hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol remains high in adults over age 45, even extending up to ages over 75 years.
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  Administering additional antibiotic prior to C-section reduces infection rates by 50 percent

  A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows adding the dose of 500 milligrams of azithromycin during a C-section also significantly decreases the use of health care resources, including readmissions, emergency room visits and clinic visits.
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  UAB fight against cancer happening across many fronts

  In Alabama, where cancer rates have historically been among the worst in the nation, Edward Partridge, M.D., has spent more than four decades treating women who have been devastated by ovarian and other gynecological cancers.
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  3 Reasons Why Women Live Longer Than Men

  As far as records show, women have always outlived men. According to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, this is true for every year for all 38 countries included in the Human Mortality Database, which dates back to 1751.
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  UAB partners with local organizations to launch Parks Prescription program in Birmingham

  A project of Birmingham REACH for Better Health, led by the UAB Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Center, the Parks Rx program is modeled after successful initiatives in the United States in which health care providers prescribe exercise for their patients and direct them to outdoor places to exercise.
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  UAB Receives New Supercomputer to Accelerate Research

  With its new high-performance computing cluster, the fastest supercomputer in Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham can now execute tasks in a couple of hours that took an entire day with the equipment it had in 2015.
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  What's new at the Alys Stephens Center

  In celebration of its first 20 years and with an eye toward the next decade, the Alys Stephens Center, led by new Executive Director Anna M. Thompson, has finely crafted a year of arts experiences for 2016 and 2017.
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  Toddlers Are at Highest Risk for Chemical Burns to the Eyes

  “As long as the chemical is staying in the eye, it’s continuing to burn, and the longer it’s there, the bigger the problem,” said Dr. Cecil J. McCollum, an ophthalmologist and the director of emergency services at Callahan Eye Hospital at U.A.B. in Birmingham, Ala. “Initial irrigation is so important.”
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  Neo-expressionist exhibit brings bright, bold images to Birmingham

  "War and Other Disasters," by artist Luis Cruz Azaceta, runs from September 9-December 17 at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts (AEIVA), part of the UAB College of Arts and Sciences. 
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  The Big Business Of Looted Antiquities

  "One of the main challenges we faced kind of post Arab Spring, post 2011, is simply a lack of stability in the Middle East," said UAB's Sarah Parcak, Ph.D. "Many archeological sites that would have been well guarded have actually been affected by looting."
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  Exercise may help curb overeating after a mentally taxing workday: study

  Hitting the gym after a mentally demanding workday may help you eat less, according to a study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
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  Socioeconomic Status Play A Major Role In Multiple Myeloma Survival

  Health experts have identified some key factors for patients to survive different kinds of cancer. In a new U.S. study, experts have pointed out that income and educational background could be identified as factors to consider patients' survival against bone marrow cancer multiple myeloma.
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  Collat School of Business to offer new degree path

  UAB's Collat School of Business is now offering a new bachelor's degree option in human resource management.
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  Mom opens up about co-sleeping dangers after her newborn daughter suffocates

  UAB Advanced Nurse Coordinator Freda Centor recommends room sharing, not bed sharing. She suggests bringing a bassinet, crib or even a pack 'n play in the bedroom and placing beside the parent's bed.
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  Birmingham hospital adds beds for opioid addiction

  The Addiction Recovery Program at UAB is adding beds and staff to better handle an influx of patients struggling with addiction to opioids and other IV drugs.
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  Alys Stephens Center: 20 years and counting

  On May 21, 2017, Itzhak Perlman, who has garnered 16 Grammy awards, four Emmys and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, returns to celebrate ASC’s 20th anniversary season.
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  Wearable cloud moves closer with smart jacket

  A pair of researchers from UAB are working on a project to determine the feasibility of producing a wearable personal cloud, and have presented a prototype "cloud jacket" to illustrate the notion.
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  Alcohol more likely to cause chronic pancreatitis in black patients

  Black patients were almost twice as likely as white patients to have alcohol or smoking as a cause of their chronic pancreatitis, according to recent findings published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology by UAB's Charles Mel Wilcox, MD, MSPH, and colleagues.
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  With thread and needle, come healing

  UAB artist in residence Lillis Taylor combats anxiety at the UAB Women and Infants Center with her weapon of choice: wooden embroidery hoops.
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  Driving While Distracted: Parents do it, too

  "We're finding estimates of about half of all parents say that they drive distracted," said Despina Stavrinos, director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's distracted driving research lab.
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  Research shows sharing of cavity-causing bacteria may not be only from mothers to children

  New ongoing research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Biology and School of Dentistry is showing more evidence that children may receive oral microbes from other, nonrelative children.
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  Parkinson’s: Mutant Enzyme, α-Synuclein Interaction May Be Preventable

  Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham report that the most common genetic cause of Parkinson’s disease, a mutant form of the LRRK2 enzyme, contributes to the build-up of α-synuclein in neurons — a telltale sign that the nerve cells are destined to die.
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  Blocking specific neuron interaction may slow Parkinson's progression

  Two experimental drugs that block LRRK2 kinase enzyme were shown to lessen aggregations of alpha synuclein protein, which have been shown to play a role in the development of Parkinson's disease, report researchers at the University of Alabama Birmingham.
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  UAB optometrist improves treatment and care for patients with dry eye

  Kelly Nichols, O.D., Ph.D., a dry eye expert and dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry, conducted research studies for the parent drug company to explore the efficacy and safety of lifitegrast in treating this eye condition that affects more than 16 million adults in the United States.
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  Zebrafish's growing impact on medical research

  Zebrafish are becoming more and more popular as a research model for human disease. Along with mice and humans, they are one of the most commonly studied animals in biomedical research.
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  Discovery may Lead to Novel Treatment to Slow Progression of Parkinson's Disease

  The research team has shown that the most common genetic cause of Parkinson's disease — a mutant LRRK2 kinase enzyme — contributes to the formation of inclusions in neurons, resembling one of the hallmark pathologies seen in Parkinson's disease.
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  UAB professor wants to fight dependence with psychedelics

  A new pilot trial at the University of Alabama at Birmingham is examining the potential of a surprising tool for treating cocaine addiction: the psychedelic compound psilocybin.
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  UAB expands partnership with Jefferson State Community College

  The University of Alabama at Birmingham has expanded its joint admissions program with Jefferson State Community College to include two new full-tuition scholarships, as well as a reverse transfer credit program.
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  New study increases understanding of chronic fatigue syndrome

  Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine set out to see if CFS symptoms truly were worse after some sort of physical exercise or strain.
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  Checkpoint in B cell development discovered with possible implications on vaccine potency

  In a paper published in the July 14 inaugural issue of the journal Science Immunology, University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers report a new quality-control checkpoint function in developing B cells, cells that produce antibodies to protect the body from pathogens.
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  Why women live longer than men

  "Humans are the only species in which one sex is know to have a ubiquitous survival advantage," the UAB researchers wrote. "Indeed, the sex difference in longevity may be one of the most robust features of human biology."
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  Laundry detergent pods particularly dangerous for children

  Now a new study, published in the journal Injury Prevention, has compared the dangers of laundry pods and standard laundry detergent and found that exposures to the pods are more likely to land a child in the hospital.
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  How Extra-Coding RNAs Regulate DNA Methylation in Brain

  The creation or removal of memories in the brain involves addition or removal of methyl groups at precise spots on chromosomal DNA. But what is it that controls the careful targeting of these neuronal DNA methylation dynamics?
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  Harold Ripps makes $500,000 commitment to UAB football operations center

  The UAB Department of Athletics has announced that Harold W. Ripps, a local philanthropist and CEO of Rime Capital Account, Inc., has made a $500,000 commitment to the UAB Athletics Foundation in support of the Football Operations Center.
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  UAB psychologist warns Alabama summers can cause ‘increased anger and aggression’

  “Tempers get shorter as we get hotter, and we are more likely to react angrily to circumstances that wouldn’t bother us as much if the weather were cooler.”
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  Parkinson's biomarker found in urine, researchers say

  Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found the LRRK2 protein is present in the urine of Parkinson's patients, suggesting they can track both the disease and the efficacy of experimental treatments.
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  UAB researchers target Antarctic sponge for promise against deadly MRSA infection

  In the frigid Southern Ocean, off the coast of Antarctica, only the strong survive. “Sponges aren’t protected by shells and they can’t move around,” said James McClintock, Ph.D., Endowed University Professor of Polar and Marine Biology in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences Department of Biology. “When you’re that leaky, you have a constant battle on your hands.”
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  UAB to open new multispecialty clinic at Montgomery hospital

  The new clinic includes urology, gastroenterology, endocrinology and rheumatology specialities and will be located on the first and second floors of the UAB School of Medicine building within the hospital's campus.
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  Genomic Medicine Education Gets $3.5M Boost From NIH

  Called the Institutional Training Grant Program in Genomic Medicine, the initiative has awarded $3.5 million in five-year grants to research institutes to provide genomics training to postdoctoral fellows who have earned an MD or PhD.
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  UAB to be first in Alabama to develop proton treatment center

  PI focuses on one- or two-room facilities to perform a radiation therapy that targets tumors to cause less damage to surrounding tissues and has fewer side effects.