UAB Briefs: Big jump in grants, 'Scourge' of an exhibit, LGBTQ wellness
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 jchambers@starnespublishing.com.
RECORD GRANT AWARDS
UAB has exceeded $500 million in research grants and awards in a 12-month period for the first time.
The university amassed just over $527 million in grants and awards from Nov. 1, 2017, through Oct. 31, 2018, according to a UAB news release.
And all 12 academic groups on campus — including all schools, academic joint departments and central administration — saw increases in funding, according to Christopher Brown, UAB’s vice president for research.
“Our research funding has been on an upward trajectory for several years in a row now, and this year was an acceleration of that trend,” Brown said in the release.
The $527 million in grant awards reported Oct. 31 was a 10.1 percent increase from the total reported on Oct. 31, 2017.
The School of Engineering stood out with a jump from $7.5 million to $16.7 million in funding — a 122 percent increase.
The School of Medicine went from about $290 million to almost $304 million, a 4.6 percent increase and the largest unit-based increase measured in dollars.
Of the funding awarded to UAB, 61 percent came from the National Institutes of Health.
THE ART OF DISEASE
The Reynolds-Finley Historical Library at UAB will host “Scourge: Diseases That Shaped History” — an exhibition about three historically significant epidemics — beginning Monday, Dec. 3, according to a university news release.
“Scourge” was curated by UAB art history students Kelsey Jones, Oakleigh Pinson, Tina Ruggieri and Brooklynne Todd and draws on the library’s collection.
The students say they hope visitors will leave with more knowledge about these illnesses and the progress made by modern medicine.
“As art history students, we thought it would be fascinating to express disease and medicine visually in the forms of illustrations, text and significant items from the collection that would bear relevance to the topics,” Pinson said in the news release.
There will be an opening reception for “Scourge” on Thursday, Dec. 6, from 4-6 p.m. It is free and open to the public.
Prior to the reception, at 2:30 p.m., the co-curators will offer a lecture on their experience in putting the show together in the graduate conference room in Lister Hill Medical Library. Coffee and snacks will be provided.
The students will also give a series of curator’s talks during the run of exhibition.
In addition, the students will host a lecture by Dr. Michael Saag, founder of the university’s 1917 Clinic on the first floor of the UAB Humanities Building on Tuesday, Dec. 5, at 11 a.m. Saag will speak on the topic, “The Art of ART (Antiretroviral Therapy).”
Reynolds-Finley Historical Library is located on the third floor of Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences, located at 1700 University Blvd.
The library’s hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily. For more information, call 934-4475 or contact reynoldsfinley@uab.edu.
BOOSTING LGBTQ WELLNESS
The Magic City Wellness Center in Birmingham is the first LGBTQ comprehensive health care facility in Alabama. But since the center opened in 2016, it has reached capacity.
However, thanks to a new partnership with UAB, the facility will be able to see more patients.
Dr. Rodney Tucker, an internist in the UAB Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care, was to provide primary care to patients once a week beginning in November, according to a university news release,
Tucker also serves as the director of the UAB Center for Palliative and Supportive Care and is a UAB graduate.
“The goal of the clinic is to bring patients who may have been marginalized in the past into a medical setting,” Tucker said. “This will help increase health care options for members of the LGBTQ populations in the Birmingham area.”
The center assists in reducing barriers to care while eradicating health disparities in the LGBTQ community, according to Will Rainer, director of the facility.
The Magic City Wellness Center is part of the nonprofit Birmingham AIDS Outreach, which benefits from the employee-managed UAB Benevolent Fund.