Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences Research
Overview
Our faculty has research emphases in the areas of brain cognition, addiction, cancer, and cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
Cancer Emphasis
The cancer faculty studies 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 and uncover new drug targets for treating cancer. The faculty is also attempting to understand why cancer cells develop drug resistance, a common problem in cancer treatment, and are working on identifying drugs that combat resistance.
Neuroscience Emphasis
The neuroscience faculty have broad areas of expertise spanning neurodegenerative disorders, mental health, addiction, and spinal cord injury. Several faculty members investigate aging and Alzheimer’s disease, with particular emphasis on how comorbid conditions and other risk factors—including diabetes, stress, neuroinflammation, sleep disruption, obesity, stroke, and age-related hormone loss—influence brain aging and disease progression. Other faculty study mechanisms underlying spinal cord injury and seek to identify novel therapeutic approaches. Substance use disorders are also an important area of research, with investigators examining factors that contribute to addiction-related disease states, their neurological, behavioral, and metabolic consequences, and interventions that may facilitate recovery. Our neuroscience faculty are highly interactive and share common interests. Research tools and approaches include advanced multiphoton microscopy, immunohistochemistry, calcium imaging, advanced behavioral techniques and phenotyping, molecular characterization, transcriptional modulation/genome engineering, electrophysiology, and transcriptomic analyses.
Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases Emphasis
The cardiovascular pharmacology faculty focuses on identification of mechanisms for the development of vascular diseases (aneurysms, atherosclerosis), hypertension, and clotting disorders. The long-term goal of research within these areas is to identify novel drug targets to develop effective therapeutic strategies for cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the US. An additional area of emphasis focuses on mechanisms linking obesity to cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and impaired cognition with aging. Since the prevalence of obesity is rampant in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the US, researchers focus on development of effective pharmacologic strategies to minimize obesity-induced complications.