UAB Briefs: 700 students expected to walk in fall commencement
Welcome to another installment of UAB Briefs.
In this weekly online feature, we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.
Know people, places and programs on the UAB campus that deserve a mention? Email us at jchambers@starnespublishing.com.
Caps and gowns
More than 1,500 students will graduate from UAB this fall, and about 700 are expected to walk in the commencement ceremony at Bartow Arena on Saturday, Dec. 16, at 9:30 a.m., according to a university news release.
The mace carrier for the commencement will be Dr. Robert M. Centor, a professor in the UAB School of Medicine.
The undergraduate student speaker will be Blaire Landry of Deatsville, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice with a concentration in forensic science, and a minor in accounting.
Bartow Arena doors will open at 8:30 a.m. Tickets are not required, but seating for the ceremony is first come, first served.
University officials recommend that attendees leave nonessential bags at home or in the car.
The commencement ceremony will be live-streamed on the UAB Facebook page.
In addition, the ceremonies will be recorded and made available for viewing online at uab.edu/commencement about a week after the ceremonies.
Learning about lupus
The Lupus Research Alliance recently awarded the UAB a one-year grant of $250,000 to seek a new explanation of how lupus develops and the reason some people, particularly African-Americans, are at greater risk for flare-ups and kidney disease, according to a UAB news release.
“The results will form a solid foundation to develop interferon therapies and identify markers that track the diseases in people with lupus,” said Dr. John D. Mountz, Goodwin-Blackburn chair and co-director of the UAB Center for Aging.
Mountz received the 2017 Dr. William E. Paul Distinguished Innovator Award in Lupus and Autoimmunity, which provides up to $1 million over four years to encourage investigators worldwide to pursue innovative research projects to uncover the fundamental causes of lupus.
The work at UAB will be reviewed for additional funding pending progress at the end of the first year.
Fighting breast cancer
Dr. Erica Stringer-Reasor, an assistant professor in the UAB Division of Hematology and Oncology, has been awarded a $450,000 grant from Susan G. Komen to support a clinical trial investigating PARP inhibitors for the treatment for HER2-positive breast cancer.
HER2-positive breast cancer is a cancer that tests positive for a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 or HER2, which promotes the growth of cancer cells.
PARP is an enzyme in cells that helps repair DNA when it has become damaged, as in the case with cancer.