September 25, 2024

New NIH announcement. The NIH is adopting new Common Forms for Biographical Sketch and Current and Pending (Other) Support documents for NIH grant applications and Research Performance Progress Reports. The new Forms for Biographical Sketch and Other Support will be required May 25 2025 onward. Below are a few NIH links pertinent to the new NIH requirements.

July 10, 2024

Dr Yvonne Edwards attended the 2024 Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Retreat and gave a presentation. The presentation highlighted new software developments (utilizing NextFlow and machine learning component) plus bioinformatics analysis together with data generated from clinical research studies to make novel scientific discoveries. Below is a group photo with the 2024 Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Retreat attendees. Dr Edwards is on the penultimate row, second person on your left.

July 30, 2023

Dr Edwards was invited by the editors of Cystic Fibrosis Research News to write a review of the research article she and the investigative team had recently published in the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis. This Cystic Fibrosis Research News review is peer-reviewed and intended to target a lay audience on the new developments in Cystic Fibrosis research. The review is published in Cystic Fibrosis Research News, July 2023 and has the title A Search Begins for the Role of CircRNAs in Cystic Fibrosis. Congratulations to the investigative team!

July 30, 2023

Dr Yvonne Edwards is the senior author of recent research article: Discovery of dysregulated circular RNAs in whole blood transcriptomes from cystic fibrosis patients – implication of a role for cellular senescence in cystic fibrosis. This research is published in the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis. This is the first publication to identify and characterize circRNAs in cystic fibrosis. The study highlights the under explored roles of circRNAs in relation to respiratory disease with a perspective to provide a more complete molecular characterization of cystic fibrosis. The underlying data is whole blood transcriptomes of cystic fibrosis patients and healthy controls. Well done to the investigative team!

January 25, 2023

NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy. Starting January 25 2023, NIH grant applications leading to the generation of scientific data require submission of a 2-page Data Management and Sharing Plan. The NIH is regularly adding new information and guidance on this new requirement. Here are a few links covering the new NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy.

NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy (Link)NIH Data Management and Sharing Plans Samples (Link)
NIH 12 Days of Data Management and Sharing Tips & Resources (Link) (Link)NIH DMSP FAQs (Link)

December 15, 2022

Via zoom Dr Yvonne Edwards participated in the University of Cambridge UK Symposium for Professor Sir Tom Blundell FMedSci FRS to celebrate Tom’s scientific achievements. It was an amazing event with alumni presenting work from diverse aspects of Tom’s research and legacy.

Professor Sir Tom Blundell FMedSci FRS is Dr Edwards’ PhD mentor and he is now 80 years young and still going strong. Dr Edwards gave a short presentation for this celebration. The event was organized by Dr Marko Hyvönen and colleagues from Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, UK. Over 100 alumni attended in person and online. Attached are two cartoon Illustrations by Dr Alex Cagan summarizing the event beautifully. The cartoons are so cool we thought we would share. Dr Edwards is featured in one of the two cartoons attached – the question is can anyone figure out where? 😊.

June 12, 2021

Dr Yvonne Edwards is on the Editorial Board of Briefings in Bioinformatics. Dr Yvonne Edwards served as one of three Associate Editors working with the Editor in Chief for the journal Briefings in Bioinformatics which is ranked #1 in the world out of 57 journals which are in the category of Mathematical and Computational Biology. This journal has a 2021 impact factor of 13.996.

September 23, 2020

A Bioinformatics Post-Doctoral Position is available in the Collaborative Bioinformatics Research Lab.

April 30, 2020

UAB IT Research Computing announcement, see link here, describes Globus Share Technology enabling remote collaboration at UAB School of Medicine. Dr Yvonne Edwards (Director, Collaborative Bioinformatics Research Lab) and Dr Narendra Wajapeyee (Professor, Vice Chair for Research) are featured in the announcement utilizing Globus Share for remote collaboration. UAB IT Research Computing provided modern technology enabling remote data sharing capabilities and collaboration for big data research. Globus Share proved to be an important collaborative tool during the mandatory lock-down of the UAB campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

April 2, 2020

New grants awarded with support from the Collaborative Bioinformatics Research Lab. Dr Kim Keeling (Principal Investigator) and Dr Edwards (Co-Principal Investigator) won a grant award for $500,000 direct costs (over 2 years) for Cystic Fibrosis research “Investigating Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay (NMD) as a Therapeutic Target”. One of the goals is to examine how CFTR premature termination codon containing mRNAs are targeted for NMD, allowing us to identify specific and safe NMD targets for the development of new treatments for Cystic Fibrosis patients who carry a nonsense mutation. This is a patient subgroup for which no therapies are currently available. The main goal of the research is to determine whether conditions can be achieved to inhibit NMD so as to raise CFTR mRNA levels without causing toxic side effects.