Inside Pediatrics Winter 2019

News, Honors and Awards

$37.5M GRANT WILL ADDRESS RESEARCH OF HIGH-PRIORITY INFECTIONS The Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development Center (AD3C) at UAB has been awarded a five-year, $37.5 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Centers of Excellence for Translational Research to study and develop treatment for high-priority infections. Led by Richard Whitley, M.D. , Pediatric Infectious Diseases, AD3C’s goals involve developing new small molecule therapeutics for emerging and re-emerging viral infections. Additionally, AD3C provides an infrastructure to accelerate the development of new potential drugs from the lab toward the clinic. “This grant will help us improve and create new treatment options for these four virus families and ultimately impact the global understanding of these viruses at large,” Whitley said. “The viruses of focus within AD3C are of the highest priority to the United States government. We are confident that our future findings will help transform the way we treat patients, unmet medical needs and the safety of millions.” WHITLEY RECEIVES NFID LEADERSHIP AWARD Richard Whitley, M.D. , Pediatric Infectious Diseases, has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) John P. Utz Leadership Award. This award recognizes Whitley’s leadership in the field of clinical virology and infectious diseases. “Johnathan Utz has been a hero in infectious diseases. All of us who practice this specialty emulate his contributions. This is very much of an honor,” Dr. Whitley said about receiving this award. The John P. Utz Leadership Award was established by the NFID in 2007 as a lasting memorial to the late John P. Utz, M.D., a champion in the fight against infectious diseases. The award is presented to individuals who exemplify leadership in the field of infectious diseases, as selected by the NFID Board of Directors. KIMBERLIN TO CHAIR UAB HUMAN RESEARCH ADVISORY COMMITTEE David Kimberlin, M.D. , Pediatric Infectious Diseases, has been named chair of the newly established Human Research Advisory Committee (HRAC) at UAB. Kimberlin will serve a two-year term as committee chair. The HRAC will provide a forum for increasing transparency and seeking input from stakeholders engaged in human subjects research at UAB in order to identify opportunities for improvement in our human research protection program. RESEARCHERS AWARDED $10M TO STUDY ACUTE FLACCID MYELITIS The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded the UAB Department of Pediatrics a $10 million contract to conduct a multicenter, multinational natural history study of acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) in pediatric patients. “Since at least 2014, children have been at risk of developing a polio-like syndrome likely due to enteroviruses, and this study will provide the basis for understanding the cause of those children’s paralysis,” said David Kimberlin, M.D. , co-director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at UAB and co-principal investigator of the study. “Knowledge gained from this study hopefully will provide the foundation for future treatment studies of antiviral drugs. We hope to better understand why acute flaccid myelitis occurs and which children are most at risk, and to develop the biorepository and associated clinical database to understand what we can do about it in the future.”

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