BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Brian Sims, M.D., Ph.D., a third-year postgraduate fellow with the UAB division of neonatology in the Department of Pediatrics, has received a $328,000 grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) as part of its Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program (AMFDP).

Sims will use the four-year grant to research strategies to protect against cerebral palsy in premature infants through basic science research. The research is aimed at studying premature oligodendrocytes, the cells that are most injured in the brains of these infants.

The grant is part of an ongoing core program of the RWJF, established in 1983, with the objective of increasing the number of minority faculty who can achieve senior rank in academic medicine and foster the development of successive classes of minority physicians. The AMFDP was created to address both the long-standing shortage of minority representation in U.S. medical schools and the persistent gap in the areas of health status and access to care among the nation’s minority populations.

The program awards four-year postdoctoral fellowships in biomedical research, clinical investigation and health services research to minority physicians who are U.S. citizens, have excelled in their education, have completed formal clinical training as residents, and are prepared to devote four consecutive years to research and committed to academic careers.

Dr. Sims is an alumnus of UAB. He received his B.S. degree in 1991, his Ph.D. in 1999, and his M.D. degree from the UAB School of Medicine in 2000. He completed a MD/Ph.D. clinical research fellowship and a pediatric residency at Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital.