# UAB Pilot Center for Precision Animal Modeling (C-PAM) - Preclinical/Co-Clinical Section

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM · 2023 · $217,456

## Abstract

ABSTRACT (PRE/CO-CLINICAL SECTION)
The Preclinical/Co-Clinical Section (PCS) provides a critical link between affected individuals and referring
clinicians and the C-PAM. Guiding principles are 1) to maintain a dialog with affected individuals and referring
clinicians to ensure that adequate information is available to prioritize creation of a model and to validate the
model, and 2) to engage affected individuals and referring clinicians as partners, providing updates on progress
in a responsible manner. We expect to receive nominations for creation of an animal model from several ongoing
programs at UAB that have an existing queue of genomic variants for analysis, as well as from sources outside
of UAB. The PCS will provide a secure web-based gateway for accession of clinical information, obtained with
the informed consent of participants. The PCS team will review this information and summarize it in a PhenoTips
entry. This in turn will be used to generate a Variant Phenopacket (VPP), which will include human phenotype
ontology terms related to the affected individual's phenotype along with relevant genotypic information. There
will also be the capacity to obtain and store biological samples, such as blood, urine, saliva, and surgical
specimens, if needed. The VPP will be passed onto the Bioninformatics Section for further analysis, leading
ultimately to information to guide a decision by the Steering Committee of whether to create a model. Once a
model is made, the PCS will work together with the Disease Modeling Unit to provide co-clinical assessments.
If the model is one that might demonstrate a phenotype similar to that seen in the affected individual, the PCS
will help to validate the model phenotype in light of the clinical phenotype. Often this will require going back to
the affected individual or referring clinician for additional phenotypic information. In other cases, the model will
address cellular function altered by the genomic variant. Further validation of this finding might require additional
studies in tissue obtained from the affected individual. The PCS will also work with the Disease Modeling Unit
in studies of potential therapies. In some instances, a drug or substance might be identified that is recognized
as having potential therapeutic benefit. In other instances, the creation of the model might enable a drug
discovery effort. In either case, the PCS will work with the Disease Modeling Unit to assess potential therapies.
If results shed light on the pathogenicity of a variant or on the availability of a possible treatment, these will be
reviewed by a Clinical Curation Committee before any information is shared with the referring physician.
Ultimately, if approved by the committee and the affected individual has opted into learning of such information,
the PCS physician will communicate with the referring physician. Otherwise, general information on research
progress will be maintained on the C-PAM portal to keep the affec...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10690581
- **Project number:** 5U54OD030167-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM
- **Principal Investigator:** Matthew Brendon Might
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $217,456
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-10 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10690581

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10690581, UAB Pilot Center for Precision Animal Modeling (C-PAM) - Preclinical/Co-Clinical Section (5U54OD030167-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10690581. Licensed CC0.

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