Since 1992, I have played a significant role in the development and provision of bioinformatics support and resources at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). I am currently Director of Informatics for the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS), an NIH/NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Award site; Director of the UAB AIDS Center (CFAR) Bioinformatics Facility; and Director of the Bioinformatics Core for the UAB Microbiome Facility. As Director of these Informat...
Frances (Fran) Lund completed her undergraduate studies in Microbiology at the University of Notre Dame (B.S., cum laude, 1987). She performed her graduate work with Dr. Ronald B. Corley in the Department of Microbiology at Duke University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Immunology in 1992 and went on to a post-doctoral immunology fellowship in Dr. Maureen Howard’s group at DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, CA. In 1997 she moved to the Trudeau Institute, a basic biomedical infectious disease rese...
Dr. Orihuela obtained his Bachelor of Science Degree from Baylor University in 1996. He subsequently earned his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston where he was a Kempner Scholar. From 2001 to 2005, Dr. Orihuela completed his postdoctoral research training in the Department of Infectious Diseases at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis TN. He returned to Texas in 2005, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology ...
My research has focused on the metabolism of Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD), the bioactive form of the vitamin niacin, and the roles that NAD-utilizing enzymes and NAD-derived molecules play in modulating cellular life/death decisions and inflammatory responses following oxidative stress. My interests are in basic and translational research aimed at (i) validating NAD metabolism as a therapeutic target, and (ii) discovering new therapies for the treatment of diseases as diverse as cance...
Dr. Chaplin completed his undergraduate education at Harvard University in 1973, then undertook graduate training in the MD/PhD program at Washington University, graduating in 1980. He completed two years of Internal Medicine Residency at U of Texas/Southwestern Medical School, Parkland Memorial Hospital. His post-doctoral research training was with Dr. J.G. Seidman in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, studying the genetics of the murine major histocompatibility complex. In 1...
Carrie B. Coleman obtained her B.S. with a concentration in Microbiology at the University of Tennessee at Martin in 2002. As a graduate student she joined the lab of Dr. Scott Tibbetts in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at LSU Health Sciences Center – Shreveport. Her work in Dr. Tibbetts lab involved utilizing a murine gammaherpesvirus, MHV68, as an in vivo model to characterize the role of developing B cells in the maintenance of viral latency. She obtained her Ph.D. in virology in...
I performed my undergraduate studies in biochemistry and molecular biology at Pennsylvania State University (B.Sc, 2002). For graduate studies I trained with John Kearney, Ph.D. at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (Birmingham, AL). My thesis research focused on understanding the development of serologic and B cell memory to the T cell independent, type 2 antigen alpha 1->3-dextran. After obtaining my Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology, I took a 4 year hiatus from research to obtain my d...
I have been an assistant professor in Microbiology at UAB since January of 2016. Prior to starting my own lab, I was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Ursula Jakob at the University of Michigan, where I began my studies of bacterial responses to reactive chlorine stress and the role of the ancient biomolecule inorganic polyphosphate in stress response. I received my Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, in the lab of Dr. Jorge Escalante, studying the synthesis and salvage of the ...
My lab aims to understand virus structure and the structure-function relationships involved in the processes of viral replication, including virus-host interactions, capsid structure and polynucleotide synthesis. Toward this goal, we have used structural techniques (cryo-electron microscopy, x-ray crystallography and small angle x-ray scattering) alongside biochemistry and classical virology techniques to study viral proteins from negative strand RNA viruses (NSV: influenza A, mumps, rabies viru...
Janusz H.S. Kabarowski received his B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry from University College London, UK. He was awarded a Ph.D. degree from the Leukaemia Research Fund centre at The Institute of Cancer Research (Chester Beatty Laboratories) in London in 1997. Dr. Kabarowski subsequently conducted postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Owen Witte at UCLA. Dr. Kabarowski joined the Department of Microbiology at UAB as an Assistant Professor in 2003 and has a secondary faculty appointment in the De...
Since 1992, I have played a significant role in the development and provision of bioinformatics support and resources at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). I am currently Director of Informatics for the UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS), an NIH/NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Award site; Director of the UAB AIDS Center (CFAR) Bioinformatics Facility; and Director of the Bioinformatics Core for the UAB Microbiome Facility. As Director of these Informat...
Frances (Fran) Lund completed her undergraduate studies in Microbiology at the University of Notre Dame (B.S., cum laude, 1987). She performed her graduate work with Dr. Ronald B. Corley in the Department of Microbiology at Duke University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Immunology in 1992 and went on to a post-doctoral immunology fellowship in Dr. Maureen Howard’s group at DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, CA. In 1997 she moved to the Trudeau Institute, a basic biomedical infectious disease rese...
One of the most prominent features of M. tuberculosis is its unusual outer membrane that plays a crucial role in the intrinsic drug resistance and in survival of M. tuberculosis in vivo. This membrane is functionalized by intriguing proteins which provide essential functions such as nutrient uptake, have new structures and likely function by novel mechanisms. We discovered the first outer membrane channel protein in mycobacteria, obtained the first crystal structure of a mycobacterial outer memb...
Dr. Orihuela obtained his Bachelor of Science Degree from Baylor University in 1996. He subsequently earned his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston where he was a Kempner Scholar. From 2001 to 2005, Dr. Orihuela completed his postdoctoral research training in the Department of Infectious Diseases at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis TN. He returned to Texas in 2005, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology ...
Obtained his B.S degree in Chemistry at Birzeit University in Palestine (1996), M.S degree in Bioinorganic Chemistry at Bergen University in Norway (1998; advisor: Dr. Einar Sletten), and a Ph.D degree in Bioinorganic Chemistry at Emory University in Atlanta (2002; advisor: Dr. Luigi Marzilli). His M.S. and Ph.D studies focused on studying the interactions of cisplatin, a leading anticancer drug, with DNA by using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and other biophysical methods. Dr. Saad's postdoc...
David Bedwell, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, completed his undergraduate studies in Microbiology at Purdue University (B.S. with Honors, 1979). His graduate work in Molecular Biology was done with Dr. Masayasu Nomura at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, (Ph.D., 1985). He then carried out a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Scott Emr's laboratory at Caltech. Dr. Bedwell joined the faculty at UAB in 1988. At the national level, he is in a second 5...
S. Louis Bridges, Jr., MD, PhD is Anna Lois Waters Endowed Professor of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and has served as Director of the UAB Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology since 2009. He is also the Director of the UAB Comprehensive Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, Bone, and Autoimmunity Center. and Vice President of the Rheumatology Research Foundation. His research has been continuously funded by NIH and is focused largely on rheumatoid arthritis susceptibi...
Dr. Debasish Chattopadhyay received his BS in Chemistry and MS in Biochemistry from Calcutta University, India. He obtained Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from Jadavpur University, India in 1989. He conducted his postdoctoral research at the Upjohn Company in Michigan. This work was part of an NIH funded collaborative effort involving several academic institutions and pharmaceutical industries for the discovery of potent antiretroviral drugs. Dr. Chattopadhyay's work focussed on the structure-functio...
Irshad H. Chaudry was born on May 2, 1945. He received a B.S. as well as M.S. with honors from Sind University, and a Ph.D. from Monash University, Australia. After his postdoctoral training at Toronto University, Canada, he was an appointed as an Instructor and subsequently as an Assistant Professor at the Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. He then moved to Yale University as an Associate Professor and subsequently became a Professor. He moved to Michigan State Univer...
A graduate of Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, Dr. Davis completed medical school at the University of Alabama School of Medicine (UASOM), where he also served his internship, residency, and the ABIM academic subspecialty research fellowship clinical investigator pathway in Hematology/Oncology. He is Professor of Medicine, Microbiology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics in the division of Hematology/Oncology. He is board certified in Hematology.
Wegener's granulomatosis, an anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-positive systemic small vessel vasculitide, is characterized by inflammatory lesions with granuloma formation in the upper and lower airways, pauci-immune glomerulonephritis, and anti-proteinase 3 autoantibodies. Although Wegener's granulomatosis is considered idiopathic, there has been substantial interest in environmental factors as either etiologic or accelerating risk factors, with Staphylococcus aureus having attracted...
Dr. Elson received his M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, trained in Internal Medicine at New York Hospital/Cornell, then did his Gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Chicago. After doing full-time research in immunology at N.I.H., he joined the Faculty of the Division of Gastroenterology at the Medical College of Virginia. He moved to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to become Director of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and subsequently served a...
Dr. James F. George is a Professor of Surgery for the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery. He is a molecular and cellular biologist who has worked in the field of heart failure and transplantation for more than 20 years. He is actively involved in researching the basic biology of heart failure and transplant rejection, the development of new drugs, and clinical outcomes after cardiac surgery and transplantation.
His studies are concentrated in transplantation immunobiology, particularly ...
I am originally from Southern part of India and came to Duke University to study for my Ph.D. in Biochemistry. I was very lonely at Duke and went through a major cultural shock — my English was not fluent and also, because I am a vegetarian, I didn’t know what or where to eat. I transferred to Southern Illinois University and worked with an outstanding scientist and very friendly group of graduate students. I received my Ph.D. in Biochemistry there; my project dealt with organisms and mechanisms...
Our laboratory concentrates on understanding the immune correlates of protection against HIV disease progression with a focus on cell medicated immune responses (CD4 and CD8 T cells). We are utilizing a variety of techniques in our laboratory to evaluate the quality of HIV-specific T cell responses observed in patients who represent the entire spectra of HIV disease. These assays include an in vitro HIV killing and an in vitro HIV viral suppression assay. These assays measure the actual clearanc...
John C. Kappes (b. 1957), Associate Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, completed his undergraduate studies in biology at Thomas More College (B.A. in Biology, 1981) and received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Experimental Medicine from St. Thomas Institute in 1986. Dr. Kappes completed his postdoctoral fellowship studying the molecular pathogenesis of human immunodeficiency viruses and joined the UAB faculty in 1989.
Robert P. Kimberly, MD, a native of New Haven, Conn., received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Harvard Medical School after receiving a baccalaureate degree magna cum laude from Princeton University and a baccalaureate / master's degree from the University of Oxford, Oxford, England. Dr. Kimberly's achievements and honors include election to Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University, a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, a "First" class degree from Oxford, and election to both the America...
1989-1991 Prediploma Fellow, Institute for Biotechnology, University of Würzburg, Germany 1992-1997 Predoctoral Fellow, Institute for Immunobiology, University of Würzburg, Germany 1998-2001 Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Alabama at Birmingham 2001-2003 Research Instructor, University of Alabama at Birmingham 2003-2005 Research Assistant Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham 2005- 2008 Assistant Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham 2005-present Associate Scientist, UAB CFA...
Research in the Marquez-Lago lab combines (wet lab) experiments involving bioengineering, micro- and molecular biology techniques, with (drylab) data analysis, AI, modeling and simulation techniques. In a nutshell, we investigate (1) host-microbiota interactions in complex human diseases, (2) microbial multi-drug resistance, and (3) gene expression and chromatin organization. In addition, we study (4) the role and effect of mechanical forces ('mechanobiology') and cell compartmentalization in pa...
Dr. Mountz is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the UAB Recombinant Inbred Strain Facility. Dr. Mountz is the Co-Director of the UAB Bone Center, the UAB Center for Aging, Basic Biology Component, and is a Physician at the Birmingham Veterans Administration Medical Center. Dr. Mountz is the recipient of the J. W. & Virginia Goodwin-Warren D. Blackburn, Jr. Research Chair in Rheumatology (2002) and recipient of the Max Cooper Award for Excellence in Research (2003). Dr. Mountz was designate...
Moon H. Nahm, Professor of Department of Medicine, with secondary appointment in Microbiology, obtained both his BA degree (in 1970) and MD degree (in 1974) from Washington University in St. Louis MO. In 1980, he completed both Internal Medicine and Laboratory Medicine residency training in Pathology Department, as well as completing post-doctoral research training in Microbiology Department at Washington University in St. Louis MO. He was a faculty member at Washington University in St. Louis a...
Dr. Raman’s laboratory interrogates molecular and cellular mechanisms driving the immunopathogenesis of autoimmune diseases with a special emphasis on multiple sclerosis (MS) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Within this are of research, the current studies focus on molecular mechanisms underlying activation and differentiation of effector T cells, B cells and innate cells in the pathogenesis of these autoimmune diseases. Current investigations involve human immunology bridged with mouse models to ...
Lewis Shi received his MD in preventive medicine, MS in toxicology, and PhD in neurotoxicology. Upon graduation, he worked as a postdoctoral scholar at University of Wisconsin-Madison where he identified a novel role of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) signaling in innate immune response against Listeria monocytogenes infection. He then joined St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he was among the first to show that the HIF-1a-glycolysis pathway functions as a metabolic checkpoint in re...
Dr. W. Edward Swords received a B.S. in microbiology from Auburn University, followed by a M.S. from Mississippi State University. He completed his PhD studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1996. After an ASM/NCID fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Swords carried out postdoctoral work with Dr. Michael Apicella at the University of Iowa, studying the bacterial opportunist nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae. In 2002, he joined the faculty in the Dep...
As an immunologist by training, my ongoing research focuses on immunogenetic factors in several infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS.
Richard Whitley, M.D., is a Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Professor of Microbiology, Medicine and Neurosurgery; Loeb Eminent Scholar Chair in Pediatrics; Co-Director, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases; Vice-Chair, Department of Pediatrics; Senior Scientist, Department of Gene Therapy; Scientist, Cancer Research and Training Center; Faculty, Gene Therapy Center; Associate Director for Drug Discovery and Development and Senior Leader, Pediatric Oncology Program, O’Neal Comprehensi...
