Dr. John Fowlkes took the helm as new director of the University of Kentucky's Barnstable Brown Diabetes and Obesity Center earlier this year with a vision to build upon the center's past work and develop a robust and comprehensive adult and pediatric center providing research, education and patient care for the thousands of Kentuckians diagnosed with diabetes. But the Texas native who has spent the last decade at the University of Arkansas Children's Hospital, has found himself in familiar territory.
Fowlkes, who succeeds Dr.
On Friday, February 6, 2015 the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences hosted the University of Kentucky’s inaugural “Wear Red Day” symposium to raise awareness for cardiovascular research in women. The event was a part of the annual “National Wear Red Day” sponsored by the American Heart Association (AHA) that takes place on the first Friday of February.
Registration is now available for the fifth annual Barnstable Brown Obesity & Diabetes Research Day set for May 20, 2015, at the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital Pavilion A.
The event is sponsored by the Barnstable Brown Kentucky Diabetes and Obesity Center, Center of Research in Obesity and Cardiovascular Disease and the Nutrition and Oxidative Stress Training.
Researchers from the University of Kentucky and other regional institutes will share their current findings and ongoing research about the alarming rise in obesity and diabetes rates.
Shuxia Wang, MD, Ph.D., has received NIH RO1 funding for a project titled "Thrombospondin1 in obesity associated inflammation and insulin resistance." The project will be supported by $1,204,651 grant for the period of August 2014 to May 2018. In addition, Dr. Wang recently received a competitive score for an R03 award to study interventions that may reduce acute kidney injury in the elderly. Dr. Wang joined the University of Kentucky faculty in 2005, and has served extensively in the areas of research, graduate training, and education. Dr.
Changcheng Zhou, PhD, assistant professor of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences, has received funding for an NIH R21 grant: "Mechanisms of atherogenic effects of bisphenol A," for the period April 1, 2014 - March 31, 2016. Dr. Zhou joined the faculty of University of Kentucky in 2010. He also holds an adjunct faculty position at Rockefeller University, NY. The main focus of Dr. Zhou’s laboratory is to investigate the molecular mechanisms of atherosclerosis and metabolic disorders.
Dr. Michael Kilgore, PhD, received recognition as a “Teacher Who Made a Difference” at the 16th Annual Teachers Who Made a Difference awards ceremony on April 26, 2014. More than 150 teachers’ names were put forward, including teachers from across the Commonwealth of Kentucky as well as teachers from Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee and Ohio. The program, hosted by the University of Kentucky College of Education, was begun in 1998 to recognize educators who made a positive impact on the lives of their students. Congratulations Dr. Kilgore.
Four students seeking their master's degrees and five students doctoral programs competed last week in an event designed to prepare them for presenting research.
The "Three Minute Thesis" event, hosted by the UK Graduate School and the Graduate Student Congress, is a research communication initiative requiring graduate students to speak succinctly and engagingly about their current research to a nonspecialist audience.
It provides students with the opportunity to practice presenting their work, and to receive feedback from a panel of judges.
The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees Saturday adopted a sweeping statement of principles, directing President Eli Capilouto to focus on the "most pressing" needs of Kentucky by determining how best to grow UK's research enterprise through strategic investments in facilities and talent.
"The challenges are overwhelming, but we can be up to the task of making a difference," Capilouto said. "These are not easy issues, but they must be our issues.
The University of Kentucky Center for Health Services Research (CHSR), which serves as a connector, catalyst and creator at UK and UK HealthCare, announces the launch of its new website and seeks membership applicants for its efforts in applying research to optimize health care delivery. The CHSR is focused on creating, testing, and scaling next-generation health services research solutions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health delivery within Kentucky and beyond.
The Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences is pleased to announce that Associate Professors Florin and Sanda Despa recently received tenure, and Dr. Kevin Pearson was promoted to the positon of associate professor with tenure. Before coming to the University of Kentucky in 2013, Florin and Sanda Despa had appointments at the University of California, Davis. Florin earned his Ph.D. from the Institute of Physics in Bucharest, Romania and did post-doctoral studies in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago. He was an assistant professor of research at U.C.
The Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) has accepted an article by authors Sanda Despa, Savita Sharma, Todd R. Harris, Hua Dong, Ning Li, Nipavan Chiamvimonvat, Heinrich Taegtmeyer, Kenneth B. Margulies, Bruce D. Hammock, and Florin Despa. JAHA plans to publish their work, "Cardioprotection by controlling hyperamylinemia in a 'humanized' diabetic rat model," as soon as possible.
Yasir Alsiraj received an American Heart Association (AHA) Great Rivers Affiliate (GRA) Predoctoral Fellowship award for his research project titled “Sex differences in angiotensin-induced AAAs." Mr. Alsiraj is a Pharmacology doctoral candidate in Dr. Lisa Cassis lab in the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences. Congratulations, Yasir Alsiraj!
Yu Wang received an American Heart Association (AHA) Great Rivers Affiliate (GRA) Predoctoral Fellowship award for his research project titled “The role of ACE2 in mediating sex differences in the development of obesity-hypertension in mice.” Mr. Wang is a Nutritional Sciences doctoral candidate in Dr. Lisa Cassis lab in the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences. Congratulations, Yu Wang!
UK HealthCare and Norton Healthcare are building upon their history of collaboration to expand research and educational collaborations between the two institutions, with the goal of improving health and health care for all Kentuckians.
Beginning July 1, educational and research initiatives between UK and Norton will be lead by Dr. Stephen Wyatt, who most recently served two successful terms as the founding dean of the University of Kentucky College of Public Health.
The Barnstable Brown Kentucky Diabetes and Obesity Center hosted its fourth annual Diabetes Day on Tuesday, May 20. With a focus on current findings in obesity and diabetes research, the day's program featured presentations by nationally prominent physician-scientists as well as regional researchers chosen from abstract submissions.
Bisphenol A Increases Atherosclerosis in Pregnane X Receptor-Humanized ApoE Deficient Mice. Sui Y, Park SH, Helsley RN, Sunkara M, Gonzalez FJ, Morris AJ, Zhou C. J Am Heart Assoc. 2014 Apr 22;3(2):e000492. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.113.000492. PMID: 24755147
The mission of Nutritional Sciences is to train highly skilled nutritional scientists equipped to tackle critical nutrition-related disease and health issues and pursue promising careers in the rapidly expanding nutritional sciences field. One of the Division’s primary areas of research and training targets nutrition and chronic diseases, with a focus on obesity and associated disorders of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. Other specialty areas include nutrition and oxidative stress, nutrition and aging, clinical nutrition, animal nutrition and food science.
Can novel drug targets be identified to slow the progression of abdominal aortic aneurysms? Is a stimulated renin-angiotensin system the link between obesity and the myriad of obesity-induced cardiovascular diseases, or the development of type 2 diabetes? Do specific bioactive lipids released from platelets and/or the myocardium following myocardial infarction influence platelet function? These are some of the clinically significant pharmacologic questions addressed by researchers within the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences.
The cancer faculty in the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences are interested in studying the molecular basis of cancer initiation and metastatic progression. This involves using molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, and in vivo animal models to unravel novel signaling pathways in an effort to uncover new drug targets for treating cancer. The faculty also are attempting to understand why cancer cells develop drug resistance, a common problem in cancer treatment, and are working on identifying drugs that combat resistance.
