UAB Briefs: Marching Blazers return, kidney grant extended
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.
BLAZERS ON THE MARCH
The UAB Blazers football squad was scheduled to begin their highly anticipated 2018 season by taking on Savannah State at Legion Field on Thursday, Aug. 30, at 7 p.m.
The members of the UAB Marching Blazers band were also excited to get their season started.
It gave them a chance to present their new show, called “Rockstar.”
The show features music from 1980s rock groups like Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Guns N’ Roses, Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne and Mötley Crüe, according to a UAB news release.
The band has a new place to rehearse — the recently completed Intramural and Clubs Sports Complex fields, located at 1101 Fifth Ave. S.
The band held its first official rehearsal of the season at the new complex on Monday, Aug. 27.
The band typically rehearses on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 3-5:15 p.m. during the fall semester, according to the UAB Bands website
With over 200 members, the Marching Blazers perform regularly at athletic events, pep rallies and many other campus events, as well as playing around the state, the website states.
MORE KIDNEY RESEARCH
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has renewed a grant shared by the UAB School of Medicine and the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine that will extend and expand research into acute kidney failure, or acute kidney injury, according to a UAB news release.
The grant, worth $5.67 million, will fund the O’Brien Center for Acute Kidney Injury Research at UAB for another five years, according to the release.
Acute kidney injury affects about 1.2 million hospitalized patients per year and kills 70 to 80 percent of patients in intensive care units who develop the disease, the release states.
The condition “causes more deaths per year than breast cancer, prostate cancer, heart failure and diabetes combined,” said Dr. Anupam Agarwal, director of the UAB Division of Nephrology.
The O’Brien Center is one of eight federally funded centers in the country aimed at making new technologies and resources accessible to kidney researchers.
Agarwal has led the Center since 2008, when UAB received the first award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
The grant will fund the center through 2023.
TEACHING THE ARTS
The Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center at UAB is now part of The Kennedy Center’s Partners in Education Program, through a partnership with Jefferson County Schools and the Birmingham Museum of Art, according to a UAB news release.
The Partners in Education program is designed to help arts organizations develop or expand educational partnerships with local school systems.
The primary purpose is to provide professional learning in the arts for teachers.
The ArtPlay education team at the Alys Stephens Center will collaborate with the BMA and with arts education colleagues at Jefferson County Schools to design programs for students in grades K-6.
In the coming year, the teaching partners will draw curricular ties between the arts and other areas of study through a focus on global folk arts.
The Alys Stephens Center is honored to be part of a program that involves almost 100 partnership teams in nearly 40 states and the District of Columbia, according to Lili Anderson, the Center’s interim executive director.
“This program epitomizes our belief that the arts are vital to a holistic education, and are a powerful tool for expression, learning and building self-confidence,” Miller said.