The National Institutes of Health announced huge cuts to biomedical research grants, a move that would have a major impact on UAB. (File)
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By Barnett Wright | The Birmingham Times
With $3.7 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) in November announced HEALTHe Birmingham, a community-based research study on the health impacts of public housing and neighborhood revitalization.
But similar research in the future could be coming to an end.
The NIH on Friday (February 8) announced huge cuts to biomedical research grants, a move that would have a major impact on UAB, which has received hundreds of millions in NIH funding in recent years and relied heavily on those and other federal grants for its groundbreaking research.
Of a record $774.5 million in federal funding in 2022 more than $400 million came from the NIH, and the school has remained in the top 1 percent of all NIH-funded institutions, public or private, UAB has said.
A UAB spokesman did not immediately respond to questions, but AL.com columnist John Archibald wrote on Sunday, January 9, that following the announcement “several professors and doctors privately were close to panic Friday night, wondering if they should pack their bags.”
Health Disparities
According to UAB, NIH funding has been crucial for studies like HEALTHe Birmingham—Housing, Environment, And Living Conditions for Transformed Health—which measures the health impacts and cost-effectiveness of different types of improvements, such as public housing renovations, neighborhood improvements, and indoor air purification.
The study is in collaboration with the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District (HABD) and the city of Birmingham, as well as residents of the Southtown Court, Smithfield Court, Elyton Village, and Collegeville Center public housing communities and the Smithfield, College Hills, and Graymont neighborhoods.
Gabriela Oates, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine, serves as one of the principal investigators HEALTHe Birmingham, along with Lori Bateman, Ph.D., assistant professor at UAB and another principal investigator for the program.
“The disparities in lung disease and other chronic conditions between residents of public housing and the general population are profound, and the resulting human and economic burden is extraordinary,” Oates said in November. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to determine the effectiveness of large-scale initiatives in reducing these disparities.”
HEALTHe Birmingham’s research aims to determine the extent to which public housing renovations and improvements of the neighborhoods’ physical and social environments benefit lung health and reduce chronic disease risk. Results could have an impact on public health policy and inform future initiatives to reduce health disparities.
“Millions of dollars are invested in public housing revitalization each year, yet few studies have measured the impacts of these improvements on residents’ health and disease risk,” Bateman said. “This study is an opportunity to do that.”
Ability To Save Lives
The NIH cuts go beyond UAB’s research studies. The university, which employs 28,000 people and enrolls 23,000 students, provides jobs and health care.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said he was trying to assess the impact, saying the cuts would first hurt UAB’s ability to save lives, now and in the future, and potentially stifle technological growth that not only makes us healthier but also sustains the economy.
“People need to be reminded that UAB is not just the largest employer in the city—it’s the largest employer in the state,” he told AL.com’s Archibald. “So, as it relates to our state’s [gross domestic product (GDP)], as it relates to our economic growth, as it relates to our future around genomics [and] personalized medicine, NIH research dollars play a massive, significant role. And without a doubt, without knowing numbers yet, I can tell you this early, just receiving the information, [that] those in the UAB family have a right to be concerned.”
