UAB Comprehensive Arthritis Center Awarded NIH Grand Opportunity Awards Investigators in the UAB Comprehensive Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Autoimmunity Center have been awarded $7.85 million in "Grand Opportunity" grants from the National Institutes of Arthriitis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIH, NIAMS) under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009. These awards are meant to develop and implement critical research innovations to advance the research enterprise, stimulate future growth and investments, and advance public health and health care delivery. The purpose of the “GO” grants program is to support high impact ideas that lend themselves to short-term funding, and may lay the foundation for new fields of investigation. The “GO” grants program will support large-scale research projects that accelerate critical breakthroughs, early and applied research on cutting-edge technologies, and new approaches to improve the synergy and interactions among multi and interdisciplinary research teams. The initiative seeks novel approaches in areas that address specific knowledge gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation, or research methods that would benefit from an influx of funds to quickly advance the area in significant ways.
Dr. Robert Kimberly is the Principle Investigator of an effort to find genetic susceptibiltity factors for end stage renal disease in lupus. He is also collaborating on a study based at the Feinstein Institute seeking to create a genetically defined repository of specimens that can benefit future biomedical analyses.
Dr. S. Louis Bridges is spearheading a study of genetic factors in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in African-Americans.
U.S. News & World Report Magazine announces 2009 America’s Best Hospitals Eight UAB Hospital specialty programs are among the nation’s top 50 — and six are in the top 25, including UAB Rheumatology, ranked 8th (18th consecutive year ranked).