UAB SPARC Highlights AI Knowledge Infrastructure and Drug Discovery Innovation at Alabama AI Innovation Summit

April 15, 2026 — Birmingham, AL. The Systems Pharmacology AI Research Center (SPARC) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham participated in the 2026 Alabama AI Innovation Summit, held April 9–10 at the Bryant Conference Center in Tuscaloosa. The summit, organized around the theme “AI Operating Systems & Knowledge Infrastructure,” brought together researchers, industry leaders, and public-sector partners to explore the technical and organizational foundations needed for trustworthy, scalable, and human-centered AI.   

SPARC Director Prof. Jake Y. Chen played a visible leadership role in the meeting. On Thursday morning, he served as a panelist in Panel 1: “AI Infrastructure and Knowledge Systems: How Research, Industry, and Institutions Work Together,” a session focused on how AI infrastructure and knowledge systems can support scalable and trustworthy innovation across sectors. Later that day, he also served as a co-chair of Working Group 1: Knowledge & AI Infrastructure, which centered on shared technical foundations such as data architectures, ontologies, knowledge graphs, integration layers, and platform design for AI across domains.   

SPARC also showcased its research during the summit’s Student Poster / Demo Session + Partner Matchmaking reception on Thursday afternoon. The center presented three posters reflecting its growing contributions at the intersection of AI, knowledge systems, and open-science drug discovery: “GeneTerrain: Shared-State Cohort Analysis with MCP-Based Reporting,” presented by Oishe Geetanjali; “Disease-to-Target: An AI-Assisted Platform for Conversational Drug Target,” presented by Kurmachalam Nikhil; and “SPARC: Building an AI-Enabled Knowledge Infrastructure for Open-Science Drug Discovery,” presented by Zhandos Sembay. The poster session was part of the summit’s formal program and provided an opportunity for research exchange and partner matchmaking. 

SPARC’s presence at the summit underscored its mission to advance AI-enabled biomedical discovery through interoperable knowledge infrastructure, collaborative platforms, and responsible AI systems. By contributing both to the summit’s strategic conversations and to its poster showcase, SPARC demonstrated how UAB research is helping shape the future of AI for science, health, and translational drug discovery.