The UK College of Medicine is pleased to announce that Bonnie L. Firestein, PhD, has been selected as the next chair of the UK College of Medicine Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences.
Dr. Firestein joins the University of Kentucky from Rutgers University, where she served as a distinguished professor of cell biology and neuroscience.
She received her doctorate from the University of California San Diego, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California San Francisco before joining the faculty at Rutgers. Dr. Firestein is also a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
With more than 25 years of experience as a researcher, educator, administrator, and mentor, she brings a strong record of scientific achievement, collaborative leadership, and commitment to faculty and trainee development.
A nationally funded investigator, Dr. Firestein leads a research program focused on purine metabolism — particularly the role of guanine metabolism in brain development, injury response, and metabolic disease. Her work has been supported by approximately $15.5 million in funding from federal agencies, state commissions, and private foundations. She has also led multi-investigator initiatives, including a New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury program that united researchers across three institutions, and has collaborated extensively with investigators in engineering, physics, computational biology, metabolomics, rheumatology, and virology.
The college extends its sincere appreciation to Nada Porter, PhD, for her service as chair since 2014, helping the department expand its research and educational missions, recruit exceptional faculty, and enhance its national reputation. We would also like to thank the search committee for their time and effort throughout this process.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Firestein to the UK College of Medicine!
Read more news from the department:
NIH awards $11 million for UK diabetes prevention research
New nutritional science opportunity at UK helps expand medical students’ education
UK researchers uncover key brain cell communication breakdown in Alzheimer’s disease