A contingent of University of Alabama (UA) researchers recently paid a visit to the CCTS, spending the better part of Thursday, August 25, meeting with CCTS faculty and staff, sharing research interests, touring HUB facilities, and discussing opportunities for deeper collaboration. UA is one of the 11 CCTS partner institutions.
The day began with face-to-face meetings between the UA researchers and leadership of several key CCTS domains, including the Training Academy, Informatics, Biostatistics-Epidemiology-Research Design (BERD), and Research Commons. The UA contingent, including Drs. Kristi Crowe-White, Kristine Graettinger, Yonghyun Kim, Janis O’Donnell, Laura Reed, Edward Sazonov, and Jason Parton, then took turns describing their programs of research over lunch. Opportunities for joint endeavors, from possible HO-1 homologues in Drosophilia to wearable mobile devices that can track food intake or blood pressure, were also identified.
The UA visitors then broke into groups based on their disciplines and areas of interest to tour specific facilities at the HUB. These included the Clinical Research and Bionutrition units, Departments of Biology and Engineering, and labs focused on population genetics and neurodegenerative diseases. One group also met with experts involved with the AimTech and i-Corps-based training initiatives.
UA Site Lead Dr. John Higginbotham, associate dean for research and health policy and director of the Institute for Rural Health Research, was also on hand for the visit. After returning to UA, he reported, “the energy and enthusiasm of the CCTS is infectious, and it did ‘jump’ to my colleagues here at UA.”
The CCTS looks forward to continuing to “infect” partner institutions with the vision of what clinical and translational team science can achieve to move the needle on our shared mission. To schedule a visit with us, contact