The division of Urology at UAB has recently developed a new infrastructure for clinical research. This program is quickly becoming competitive at a national level since its initiation by Dr. Amling in 2005, and the basic sciences laboratory by Dr. Mobley in 2006, which is now Co-Directed by Dr. Erik Busby.

 

We have also hired a research administrator, two research nurses, a dedicated database technologist, a full time information technologist, and a tissue procurement specialist. The goal here was to obtain and bank corresponding patient samples, including; serum, plasma, core tissues, saliva, urine, & pre-surgical biopsies. This concerted team effort allows us to note any pertinent patient information related to the acquisition of tissues, such as post surgical ischemia times, and as a result we are capable of assuring the highest quality in our specimens, which is absolutely necessary for biomarker research.

 

Changes have included the implementation of a high level searchable database with all pertinent de-identified patient information. This includes a wide variety of background such as dietary status, in addition to family history, tissue pathologies, common labs, co-morbidities, etc.

In addition, we are currently connected to the Cancer Biomedical informatics Grid (CaBIG) with a dedicated server hosting proteomics compatible tools such as LabKey (CPAS), the trans-proteomic pipline (TPP), the systems biology program Cytoscape, in addition to a newly incorporated clinical research management system from Sloan Kettering (CAISIS).

 

It is our expectation that this newly developed infrastructure, which includes the combination of a highly energetic research team, newly developed computing tools, and high end clinical proteomics, that we will be successful in completing our goals of finding efficient markers of disease initiation and progression along with newly developed treatment strategies to match.

Finding a Cure Through Discovery Based Sciences

Urologic Research

An IHC stain of alpha-methylacyl-coenzyme-racemace (AMACR) found to be specifically over-expressed in a biopsy containing prostate cancer.