The University of Alabama at Birmingham will be receiving $15 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health.

The new funding will go toward the university’s Department of Pathology, the school said. The department will use the money to study and analyze diseases including ZTTK Syndrome, a rare disease identified primarily in children that is characterized by intellectual disability, delayed motor-psycho development and multi-organ anomalies.

The money will also go toward research of alcohol-related liver disease, Alzheimer’s, breast cancer, heart failure and inflammatory bowel disease.

“This influx of funding builds on an already broad, robust research portfolio in the Department of Pathology, and at UAB,” said Dr. George Netto, Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair, UAB Department of Pathology. “The grants funded recently cover a vast swath of scientific and medical topics, ranging from heart failure to Alzheimer’s Disease, and collectively reflect the impact our faculty have on the scientific and medical fields at large.

“We are grateful for the support of the leadership at UAB and in the Heersink School of Medicine, that allows for the tools and resources these researchers need to conduct this cutting-edge research This work is the precursor to improving patient outcomes.”

The grants will begin this year, with the funding continuing over the next three to five years.

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.