The Birmingham Times
While working as a medical assistance instructor at Jefferson State Community College, Jessica Clark remembers one student 12 weeks away from graduating who stopped coming to classes.
“I’m like ‘did she get sick’ because they can only miss so many days,” Clark recalled. “I was at McDonald’s one day in Roebuck and I ran into her and I didn’t recognize her but she recognized me. I asked her what happened and she was telling me her mom had just been diagnosed with Lupus… and put her dreams aside so she could take care of her family.”
Study describes IgG antibodies in Crohn s disease specific for human bacterial flagellins
Last year, Charles O. Elson, M.D., demonstrated a potential preventive treatment for Crohn s disease, a form of inflammatory bowel disease. He used a mouse model that included immune-reactive T cells from patients with Crohn s disease in a flagellin peptide-specific immunotherapy.
This study provided proof-of-principle that a flagellin-directed immunotherapy might provide similar benefits in patients.
Now University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have moved a step closer to possible clinical testing of this treatment, say Elson and co-first authors Katie Alexander, Ph.D., and Qing Zhao, M.D., Ph.D. Their study, published in the journal
Study identifies quality measures for pediatric palliative care
There is currently no consensus on what quality end-of-life care for children with cancer looks like, or how to measure and deliver it; however, investigators recently assembled an expert panel to help fill this void. In a study published early online in
CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the panel endorsed 16 measures that cover different aspects of care that are important for children with cancer and their families.
Measuring the quality of the care delivered is an essential part of ensuring high quality end-of-life care for all patients. Although there are numerous quality measures for end-of-life care for adults with cancer, there are zero for children with cancer.
UAB spinoff receives $3 million in seed funding to develop probiotic formulations for lung health
A biomedical research company founded by a University of Alabama at Birmingham physician-scientist has received $3 million in seed funding.
ResBiotic Inc. spun off from UAB last year will use the money to develop and commercialize groundbreaking probiotic formulations for lung health, says founder C. Vivek Lal, M.D., an associate professor in the UAB Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology. The seed round was funded from a private equity syndicate led by Birmingham-based investment firm Timberline Holdings.
ResBiotic s first product aims to supplement the nutritional needs in chronic lung diseases. The product was developed in Lal s Pulmonary Microbiome Lab at UAB, with research and expertise from UAB s Microbiome Center, Lung Health Center, and the Translational Research in Normal & Disordered Development program.