UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine Fall 2016 | Page 7

Innovative Cancer Initiatives
Since its last NCI renewal in 2011, the Cancer Center has substantially enhanced research capabilities and infrastructure in
several impactful ways:
• Optimized the Alabama Drug Discovery Alliance:
The ADDA facilitates drug discovery and development
by combining the complementary resources that exist at
UAB and Southern Research, a Birmingham-based notfor-profit research organization. There are currently 10
cancer projects in the works for drug development in the
ADDA.

• Developed a dedicated Phase I Clinical Trials unit and
program: The Phase I Unit provides a much-needed
facility for first-in-human studies at UAB, in which
patients can receive both FDA-approved and experimental
drugs in one centralized location. The program has 16
first-in-human phase I trials open, and has four more in
the clinical trial review pipeline.

• Created the UAB Cancer Center/HudsonAlpha
Institute for Biotechnology Consortium: The
consortium with this Huntsville-based company provides
a platform for building research teams focused on cancer
and integrating genomic information into efforts to
identify risk, prevent disease and direct personalized
therapy; use wide-scale genomic sequencing to discover
genes responsible for cancer development and progression;
and educate members of the Cancer Center so they can
apply genomic information to their research and patient
care.

• Launched the UAB Health System Cancer Community
Network and Patient Care Connect: This network
consists of 12 hospitals across Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee that emphasize
collaboration between UAB and community cancer
centers on evidence-based guidelines for cancer treatment
of patients in local communities. The overall idea is to
bring cancer care closer to home while reinforcing UAB’s
best practices. The network was used to test an innovative
new concept in cancer care using lay navigation across the
continuum of care to support better health, better health
care and lower costs.
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