UAB Briefs: The Cycliad, genomic analysis, IndiaFest
Welcome to another installment of UAB Briefs, in which we keep track of interesting people and events on campus.
Know people, places and programs on the UAB campus that deserve a mention?
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Bikes and brunch for good cause
The Magic City Cycliad – part of a major regional cycling event benefiting cancer patients – will take place beginning at Railroad Park on Saturday, March 25, according to a news release from the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Cycliad is the signature annual fundraising event for The Deep South Cancer Foundation, which helps cancer patients and their families cope with the daily challenges that come with a cancer diagnosis and treatment.
This year’s event includes a 10-mile brunch crawl with stops at We Have Doughnuts, Domestique Coffee, Silvertron Café and Buck Mulligan’s.
There will also be 30- and 62-mile rides featuring a post-ride brunch, and all rides begin and end at Railroad Park.
The Magic City Cycliad kicks off the bigger Cycliad tour, which will begin Friday, March 31, with a 1,000-mile ride across the South with stops at participating UAB Health System Cancer Community Network sites.
The foundation provides direct resources to patient navigators at these network sites so they can help cancer patients who are undergoing treatment to also obtain such daily necessities as gas, food, lodging and transportation – things that can easily become barriers to their care.
There are three different ride options for the Magic City Cycliad, and registration is $40.
For details, or to register or volunteer, go to deepsouthcancer.org/cycliad.
Prize-winning pianist
Prize-winning Korean-American pianist Esther Park will give the final performance in the 2016-2017 UAB Piano Series when she appears in the Reynolds-Kirschbaum Recital Hall at the Alys Stephens Center on Sunday, March 26, at 4 p.m.
The series brings the world’s finest pianists to the Magic City and is directed by Yakov Kasman, UAB professor or piano, artist-in-residence and a Van Cliburn medalist.
Park will perform Beethoven, Schubert, Debussy and Messiaen.
A Juilliard graduate, Park has won top prizes at several international competitions and performed as a soloist and in recitals in Asia, Europe and the United States.
She has appeared at such venues as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York; Salle Cortot in Paris; and the Palau de la Musica in Valencia, Spain.
General admission tickets are $15, tickets for UAB employees and students (through 12th grade) are $5; UAB students are admitted free. To order, call 975-2787.
For more information about the concert call 934-7376 or go to www.uab.edu/cas/music.
First in the nation
UAB, using a $2 million appropriation from the Alabama legislature and partnering with the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, has launched the Alabama Genomic Health Initiative, according to a university news release.
The initiative is one of the nation’s first statewide efforts to use genomic analysis to help identify those at high risk for a genetic disease and provide a basis for research into genetic contributors to health and disease.
“We will use the knowledge gained from the AGHI to begin to uncover more undiagnosed diseases, and will potentially rewrite our understanding of the burden of disease on our population,” said Dr. Selwyn M. Vickers, dean of the School of Medicine.
The AGHI will recruit a diverse group of participants from every county in Alabama and provide genomic analysis and interpretation to this group free of charge.
About 2,000 people will be recruited in the first year of the initiative to give blood for DNA samples.
The goal is to collect genetic information from more than 10,000 people over a five-year period.
Recruitment of subjects will begin this spring at UAB, followed by recruitment efforts at Cooper Green in Birmingham, UAB clinical operations in Huntsville, Montgomery and Selma and, eventually, other sites in Alabama.
The blood samples and DNA collected will be kept in a biobank for future research.
Celebrating India
IndiaFest, an extensive celebration of Birmingham’s Indian culture, began on March 11 with a Holi celebration and continues for several more weeks with events on the UAB campus and around the city.
Events include films, lectures, Holi celebrations, silk screening workshops, sand mandala ceremonies, the Alabama Asian Culture and Food Festival and performances by such Grammy-nominated musical artists as Anoushka Shankar and Niyaz featuring Azam Ali.
The festival is sponsored by the Alys Stephens Center in collaboration with the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts and the Department of Art and Art History, as well as such partners as the Birmingham Museum of Art.
The final IndiaFest event will be a free Holi “Festival of Colors” celebration on the Campus Green on Sunday, April 24, at 1 p.m., sponsored by the UAB Indian Cultural Association.
For a complete IndiaFest calendar, go to alysstephens.org/indiafest.