Robert P. Kimberly, MD, a native of New Haven, Conn., received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Harvard Medical School after receiving a baccalaureate degree magna cum laude from Princeton University and a baccalaureate / master's degree from the University of Oxford, Oxford, England. Dr. Kimberly's achievements and honors include election to Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University, a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, a "First" class degree from Oxford, and election to both the America...
As an Instructor of the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, Dr. Aaron Silva-Sanchez focuses his research on understanding the origin and function of neonatal regulatory dendritic cells (mregDCs) and their role in controlling CD8 T cell responses.
Dr. Silva-Sanchez graduated with a Ph.D. in Immunology from the National School of Biomedical Sciences in Mexico City. He joined UAB as a postdoctoral fellow in 2011 to work with Dr. Harry Schroeder on the study of mice with alter...
Alexander J. Szalai, PhD (Alex) has a long history of excellence in research and a strong record of funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Defense, and various private foundations.. He is internationally recognized for his work on the biology of C-reactive protein and its contribution to the maintenance of health, the propagation of disease, and the tissue response to injury. In addition to his research activities, Alex has excelled at teaching and has made signific...
Amanda S. Alexander, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine. She is a clinician-educator in the Division of Clinical Immunology & Rheumatology who works in outpatient clinics as well as on the consult service at UAB and the Birmingham VA Medical Center. She has an interest in scleroderma and is building a scleroderma program at UAB, and has a musculoskeletal ultrasound clinic at TKC and the Birmingham VA. Additionally, she has an interest in medical education and curriculum development and is...
Dr. Ballesteros-Tato completed his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the Autonoma University of Madrid in Spain in July 2007. In his Ph.D. thesis work, he studied the role of the cell cycle inhibitor p21 and the apoptosis-inducing Fas receptor in controlling immunological tolerance in different murine and human autoimmune diseases. Beginning in March of 2008, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Troy Randall at Trudeau Institute as a postdoctoral fellow, and then later moved with Dr. Randall's lab to th...
Trained in molecular genetics, Dr Gibson is keenly interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying complex genetic diseases, like autoimmune SLE, as a first step to identifying therapeutics for disease intervention. Dr Gibson’s original training is in the structure and function of activator genes regulating gene expression in unicellular eukaryotes, but he has since focused on structural genetic and epigenetic mechanisms driving autoimmune SLE. Using cutting-edge biochemical an...
Angelo L. Gaffo is the section chief of Rheumatology at the Birmingham VA Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He graduated from Medical School in 1999 in his native Lima, Peru and moved to the United States to complete training in Internal Medicine (UAB), Rheumatology (UAB), Public Health (earning a master’s degree at the UAB School of Public Health), and Quality Improvement science (Birmingham VA) i...
Dr. Hunkler Lipham is joining UAB from Emory University School of Medicine where she completed her Rheumatology fellowship as well as her Internal Medicine Residency Training and a Chief Resident Year. She will serve as the Assistant Fellowship Program Director in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology. Her clinical interests are connective tissue disease including lupus, inflammatory muscle disease, vasculitis, and rheumatoid arthritis. She is passionate about clinical education a...
Dr. Ball joined the UAB faculty in 1965 and was named the Jane Knight Lowe Professor in Medicine in Rheumatology in 1986. UAB recognized and honored his contributions to academic excellence by naming him professor emeritus in 1997.
In addition to faithfully serving UAB, Dr. Ball has admirably served in leadership roles in numerous professional organizations, committees, and boards. Dr. Ball was the interim director of the division for 18 months in 1995-96. Highly respected by his collea...
I joined the Faculty at UAB in 1981 after being a Research Fellow for about 18 months. I am currently Emeritus Professor and although not in Birmingham, I am still involved in mentoring fellows and collaborating with the LFA, LCTC, and GLADEL, as the need arises. During my stay at UAB and prior to that at my alma mater (Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Perú), I have been involved in the training of clinical and research fellows. In fact, after my US training (1968-1972), I started t...
Dr. Hsu, Associate Professor of Medicine, studies the regulation of multiple types of immune cells in both humans and mice. Dr. Hsu has had a long history of interest and experience in studying mechanisms of autoimmune disease. She is the investigator who identified that autoimmune BXD2 mice exhibit unique features, including spontaneous formation of germinal centers, increased expression of activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID), increased production of pathogenic autoantibodies that are...
Dr. Bennett received his A.B. from Howard College (Samford University) in 1954, and his M.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts in 1958. He served fellowships at the Massachusetts General Hospital (Rheumatology), the National Institutes of Health (Molecular biology) in Bethesda, Maryland and California Institute of Technology (Molecular Genetics) in Pasadena, California.He returned to Birmingham in 1965 to join the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham...
Jasvinder Singh, MD, MPH, is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and holds the Musculoskeletal Outcomes Research Endowed Professor of Medicine. He has served as Director of the Rheumatology Research at the Birmingham VA Medical Center since 2009. He is also the Director of the UAB Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group Satellite Center since 2013; and the Director of the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation (UAHSF) Gout clinic since 2014. He currents serves on the FDA Arthritis Advisory C...
Dr. Jeffrey R Curtis is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Curtis received a Medical Degree (MD) and a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland, OR. He subsequently completed a residency in internal medicine at Oregon Health & Science University and a fellowship in rheumatology at UAB. He completed a graduate program in Clinical Informatics at Stanfo...
Wegener's granulomatosis, an anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-positive systemic small vessel vasculitide, is characterized by inflammatory lesions with granuloma formation in the upper and lower airways, pauci-immune glomerulonephritis, and anti-proteinase 3 autoantibodies. Although Wegener's granulomatosis is considered idiopathic, there has been substantial interest in environmental factors as either etiologic or accelerating risk factors, with Staphylococcus aureus having attracted...
I am a trained molecular geneticist, having earned my PhD from Northwestern University and completed postdoctoral training at a small biotech start-up company in Birmingham. In 2004, I joined UAB as a program manager, a position in which I gained administrative responsibility of a large set of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research and training grants. I continue to have direct responsibility for ensuring the regulatory excellence (e.g., IRB, IACUC, OH&S, COI) of programs like these,...
Dr. Mountz is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the UAB Recombinant Inbred Strain Facility. Dr. Mountz is the Co-Director of the UAB Bone Center, the UAB Center for Aging, Basic Biology Component, and is a Physician at the Birmingham Veterans Administration Medical Center. Dr. Mountz is the recipient of the J. W. & Virginia Goodwin-Warren D. Blackburn, Jr. Research Chair in Rheumatology (2002) and recipient of the Max Cooper Award for Excellence in Research (2003). Dr. Mountz was designate...
Kenneth G. Saag, M.D., M.Sc. is Professor of Medicine and holds the Jane Knight Lowe Endowed Chair in the Division and the Department of Medicine. He became Division Director of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology in July of 2020. His research focuses on comparative effectiveness and safety of therapeutics as well methods to improve quality of care in gout and osteoporosis. He is Vice Chair of Outcomes and Effectiveness Research and is also the Director of the UAB Comprehensive Arthritis, Mu...
Dr. Hughes is a Professor of Medicine in the UAB Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology with a research interest in osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and imaging. Her early research and focused on genetics and pharmacogenetics in rheumatoid arthritis, especially in African-Americans. As her clinical activities changed, including in 2010 when she became the Fellowship Program Director and started the UAB Rheumatology Musculoskeletal Ultrasound (MSKUS) Service, her research focus c...
Dr. Bradley's research focuses on the interactions among biological and psychosocial factors associated with abnormal pain sensitivity in persons with osteoarthritis (OA) of the knee, and other chronic painful disorders. Several studies are ongoing with support of an R01 grant and complementary grant funds: (1) In collaboration with investigators from the University of Florida, the goal of the R01 project is to characterize ethnic differences in experimental pain sensitivity, endogenous pain inh...
Dr. Danila is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Danila is an implementation scientist and outcome researcher, passionate about improving the quality, effectiveness and processes/delivery of medical care for patients. Her research program focuses on: i) the design and evaluation of culturally-adapted and literacy-appropriate health care interventions that improve outcomes for patients with chr...
Matthew Mullen, MD, is Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology. He is a clinician-educator and works in outpatient clinics as well as inpatient services at University Hospital. He has clinical interests in spondyloarthritis and crystalline arthritis.
Dr. Mullen earned his M.D. from University of South Florida in 2011. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine in 2014 at UAB Hospital and subsequently trained as a Rheumatology fellow ...
Dr. Leask's scientific career started out with her PhD thesis research (2010-2014) in honeybees asking the biological question how does environment impact the phenotype of an organism via molecular mechanisms. She was fortunate to be offered a postdoctoral position based in the laboratory of Prof Julia Horsfield (Pathology Department, UoO) developing a bioinformatics and molecular pipeline that assigns regulatory function to non-coding variants. This research was the beginning of a successful co...
I am an Assistant Professor in the UAB Department of Medicine’s Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, and have held that rank since 2018. I obtained my Master’s in Biochemistry in Eqypt where I focused on identifying polymorphisms in the methylenetetahydropholate reductase gene (MTHFR) in mothers of children with Down’s syndrome. I was recruited to UAB where I joined the laboratory of Dr. Harry W. Schroeder, Jr. While in his laboratory, first as a PhD student and then as a postdo...
Dr Reynolds is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology. His current research interests include genetic epidemiology of gout and associated comorbidities and the genetic and epigenetic causes of gout flares. Dr. Reynolds earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland College Park's Department of Biology in 2008. He completed a post doctoral fellowship in UAB's Department of Biostatistics, section on Statistical Genetics in 2010 and thereafter j...
Robert P. Kimberly, MD, a native of New Haven, Conn., received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Harvard Medical School after receiving a baccalaureate degree magna cum laude from Princeton University and a baccalaureate / master's degree from the University of Oxford, Oxford, England. Dr. Kimberly's achievements and honors include election to Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University, a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University, a "First" class degree from Oxford, and election to both the America...
From 2004-10 Dr. Rich was UAB Senior Vice President for Medicine and Dean of the School of Medicine and from 2004-16 served as Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and (since 2012) Medical Education. From 2011-14 he was Faculty Accreditation Lead for reaccreditation of the School of Medicine. From 2014-16 he developed and then served as founding Director of the university-wide UAB Center for Interprofessional Education and Simulation. Dr. Rich was a member of the faculty of Baylor College of Medi...
S. Louis Bridges, Jr., MD, PhD is Anna Lois Waters Endowed Professor of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and has served as Director of the UAB Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology since 2009. He is also the Director of the UAB Comprehensive Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, Bone, and Autoimmunity Center. and Vice President of the Rheumatology Research Foundation.
His research has been continuously funded by NIH and is focused largely on rheumatoid arthritis susce...
Dr. Dalvi’s research interests involve the role of environmental stimuli in the development of autoimmunity as well as the role of lead toxicity and gouty arthritis. In addition, he is planning to develop a vasculitis registry to investigate potential markers of disease activity in patients with vasculitis.
Dr. Dalvi’s main clinical interests include the following: Giant cell/temporal arteritis, Takayasu’s arteritis, polymyalgia rheumatic (PMR), Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegene...
Dr Morgan is a registered/licensed dietitian and an internist.
Dr. Morgan's research program has been focused on methotrexate and folic acid metabolism in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Her work with Dr. Joseph E Baggott and members of the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology (Drs. Graciela Alarcon, Dr. William Koopman, Dr. S Louis Bridges, and Dr. Laura Hughes) have established the folic acid supplementation during low dose methotrexate therapy for rheumatoid arthr...
Selene Meza-Perez, Ph.D., is an Instructor of Medicine in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology. She received her B.S. in Biology from the National Autonoma University of Mexico (UNAM) and her masters and Ph.D. degree in Immunology at the National Polytechnique Institute (IPN) in Mexico in 2010, where her thesis theme was dedicated to study the role of intestinal dendritic cells immune response against bacterial and viral infections.
In February 2011, she joined the labo...
Tracy Hwangpo , MD/PhD, is an Instructor of Medicine in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology. She completed her Internal medicine residency and fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in immunology through the T32 Immunology training grant during her fellowship training. She received her medical degree and doctor of philosophy through the Medical Scientist Training Program at Icahn School of Medicin...
W Winn Chatham M.D. is Professor of Medicine and is the Lous W Heck Clinical Scholar in Rheumatology. He is the Associate Division Director for Clinical Services and has served as the director of clinical services for the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology since 1996.
Dr. Chatham's current clinical and research interests are focused on systemic lupus erythematosus, immunodeficiency associated autoimmunity, and macrophage activation syndrome in the setting of autoimmune an...
Dr. Elson received his M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, trained in Internal Medicine at New York Hospital/Cornell, then did his Gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Chicago. After doing full-time research in immunology at N.I.H., he joined the Faculty of the Division of Gastroenterology at the Medical College of Virginia. He moved to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to become Director of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and subsequently served a...
Frances (Fran) Lund completed her undergraduate studies in Microbiology at the University of Notre Dame (B.S., cum laude, 1987). She performed her graduate work with Dr. Ronald B. Corley in the Department of Microbiology at Duke University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Immunology in 1992 and went on to a post-doctoral immunology fellowship in Dr. Maureen Howard’s group at DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, CA. In 1997 she moved to the Trudeau Institute, a basic biomedical infectious disease rese...
Jarred Younger completed postdoctoral fellowships at Arizona State University and the Stanford University School of Medicine before taking an Assistant Professor position at Stanford.
He has recently joined the UAB faculty in Psychology, with secondary appointments in Anesthesiology and Rheumatology. He is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense to study new techniques for diagnosing and treating neuroinflammation.
Dr. Cron began his research training at the NIH (as a HHMI scholar) and continued with a PhD in Immunology following my mentor, Dr. Jeff Bluestone, to the University of Chicago, where Dr. Cron characterized murine peripheral TCRgd T cell repertoire, phenotype, and effector function. He completed medical school at UCLA and did a Pediatrics residency at Stanford where he gained an interest in Rheumatology. This was followed by a fellowship at the University of Washington in Pediatric Rheumatology....
