Systems Pharmacology AI Research Center — Health AI Lab Profile

Lab profile

About SPARC

SPARC aims to advance the use of artificial intelligence (AI), patient digital twins, and systems pharmacology in drug discovery through research innovation and multi-disciplinary collaborations. The center nurtures an ecosystem of integrated AI drug discovery (iAIDD) for dry and wet lab experts and provides education and training opportunities for the next generation of researchers.

Digital BiologyDigital ChemistryDigital MedicineAI-based Drug DesignTherapeutic Target DiscoverySmall Molecule DiscoveryDigital TwinsSystems Pharmacology

01 · People

Leadership and researchers

People listed on the lab’s team pages, by role.

Jack Y. ChenDirector · Center Director

Jake ChenDirector

Sixue ZhangAssociate Director

Aftab AhmadProfessor, Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine

Mohammad AtherProfessor, Department of Dermatology; Vice-Chair for Basic Research; Senior Scientist, UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center; Co-Director, UAB Skin Disease Research Center

Jin ChenAssociate Professor, Department of Medicine Division of Nephrology; Associate Director for Biomedical Informatics for Education, Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science

Truong Son HyAssistant Professor, Department of Computer Science

Jin LinAssistant Professor, Department of Dermatology

John D. OsborneAssociate Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science

Velu SadanandanProfessor, Department of Chemistry

Yuhua SongProfessor, Department of Biomedical Engineering

02 · Research intelligence

Research Intelligence evidence

Publications, grants and clinical trials linked to the lab’s researchers in Health AI Central’s research data.

Research

Publications & preprints

Essential Informatics Tools and Computing Infrastructure for Big Data to Advance Artificial Intelligence in Rheumatology.Rheumatic diseases clinics of North America · 2026
LINKER: Learning Interactions between Functional Groups and Residues with Chemical Knowledge-Enhanced Reasoning and Explainability.Journal of chemical information and modeling · 2026
A wearable device dataset for mental health assessment using laser Doppler flowmetry and fluorescence spectroscopy sensors.Communications medicine · 2026

All 15 since 2024 →

03 · Updates

Updates and lab news

News and events from the lab’s own site.

UAB SPARC Launches 2026 Drug Discovery CollaboFestAnnouncementAug 7, 2026 · sites.uab.edu
Agents4Science Press ReleaseNewsOct 22, 2025 · sites.uab.edu
HIIE names 2025 Blazer Bridge Fund winnersNewsSep 22, 2025 · sites.uab.edu
BIOKDD 2025 highlights AI breakthroughs in bioinformaticsNewsSep 10, 2025 · sites.uab.edu
SPARC welcomes new associate director of Digital ChemistryNewsMar 10, 2025 · sites.uab.edu
Birmingham Biotechnology HubNewsFeb 19, 2025 · sites.uab.edu
Annual Translational and Transformative Informatics Symposium (ATTIS) 2024EventMay 16, 2024 · sites.uab.edu
New Informatics Research Center to Focus on Artificial IntelligenceAnnouncementDec 19, 2023 · sites.uab.edu

04 · Official presence

Lab sources and channels

The lab’s own pages and accounts.

Website sites.uab.edu ↗Team ↗News ↗Events & programs ↗

05 · Related

Related labs and centers

Labs at the same institution and labs working on similar topics.

Center for Computational Medicine University of Texas at Austin Institute for Data Science in Oncology University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center