News

For Carrigan Wasilchenko – and so many others hailing from Eastern Kentucky – cancer is not just a public health issue. It's also a problem that hits far too close to home. 

"I don't think I know one person who doesn't know someone who's been affected by cancer in some way," said Wasilchenko, whose mother and grandmother both had cancer. "It's very personal."

We welcome David Kirk to the department as an Administrative Staff Officer. He received a Master of Public Health from The University of Tennessee and a Master of Business Administration from Wright State University. Prior to joining us, he worked as a Research Administrator in the Office of Sponsored Projects Administration at the University of Kentucky. He also has prior research administration experience at Michigan State University in the Department of Agricultural, Food, & Resource Economics and the College of Nursing. Please stop by Room 306 to welcome David to our team!

The 2017 departmental holiday party was held on Monday, December 11th.  Photos from this event can be viewed here.

Congratulations to Lu Dai and Christina Wicker who successfully defended their Ph.D. Congratulations to both! A Graduation Reception was held on Friday, December 15th in their honor!

Congratulations to Lu Dai who successfully defended her Ph.D. Congratulations Dr. Dai! And congratulations to Dr. Gang Chen for his excellent mentorship and Lu’s committee members for their guidance through her training.

Congratulations to Diane Begemann on successfully passing her doctoral qualifying exam today. Congratulations Diane! Congratulations to her mentor Dr. Natasha Kyprianou and her committee members for guiding her through this important milestone.

Congratulations to Jazmyne Jackson Barney on successfully passing her doctoral qualifying exam today. Congratulations Jazmyne! Congratulations to her mentors Dr. Hennig and Dr. Morris and her committee members for guiding her through this important milestone.

Congratulations to Christina Wicker who successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation this week. Congratulations Dr. Wicker! And congratulations to Dr. Izumi for his excellent mentorship and Christina’s committee members for their guidance through her training.

Of the 14 million cancer survivors in the United States, a significant number experience a serious side effect called chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment (CICI). While easily recognized, little is known about the etiology of this condition, also known informally as “chemo brain.” CICI can significantly reduce patients’ quality of life with serious, even devastating, symptoms such as memory lapses, difficulty concentrating, negative impacts on multitasking, confusion and fatigue.

A new book co-written by Nathan Vanderford, University of Kentucky assistant professor in the Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology, guides STEM graduate and postdoctoral students in their career planning by evaluating goals and finding the steps to be taken to achieve them.

Six University of Kentucky educators were named recipients of the UK Alumni Association 2017 Great Teacher Award Tuesday night.

The recipients are:

Cheers to this year’s class of doctoral students in the Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology who have successfully passed their qualifying exam!

Dr. Natasha Kyprianou, professor of Urology, Biochemistry, Pathology and Toxicology and Cancer Biology in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, recently was invited by the director of the Institute of Biological Chemistry of Academia Sinica, Dr. Ching-Shih Chen, on an eight-day academic tour of Taiwan that provided unique opportunities to establish global collaborations in cancer research. The James F.

From left to right:  Drs. Kathy O’Connor, Hollie Swanson, Doug Andres, Jim Geddes, Mary Vore, Daret St. Clair and Nada Porter.  


Dean Fred deBeer thanking Mary for her many years of service to U.K.


Acknowledging Mary's contributions to the Department


Recognition from the women faculty of U.K.


A gift to Mary. Now she'll have more time to tend to her own roses!

In a recent article in the journal Nature Biotechnology, University of Kentucky Assistant Professor Nathan Vanderford and doctoral candidate Heather Norman-Burgdolf describe a course developed to help graduate students and postdoctoral fellows be prepared for the realities of the job market. Every year, doctoral graduates enter the job market in search of tenure-track professorship positions at universities throughout the world. Unfortunately, the number of new Ph.D.

Led by Drs. David Orren and Amrita Machwe of the Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology and the Markey Cancer Center and conducted jointly by recent Ph.D. graduate Deanna Edwards and Dr. Machwe, this article was published online in the September 30 issue of the prestigious, interdisciplinary scientific journal Nature Communications.  The research clarifies a putative telomeric maintenance function for the WRN protein that is defective in the cancer-prone and premature aging hereditary disease, Werner syndrome.

 

Students and Faculty in the Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology held an Open House in August to meet with incoming first year graduate students. Oral and poster presentations highlighted the varied research programs in the department that investigate basic, translational and clinical aspects of toxicology and cancer biology.

What if a failed leukemia drug could reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease? A team at the University of Kentucky recently led an effort to investigate this hypothesis. Their results were published today in the journal, Human Molecular Genetics. The UK researchers, led by Steve Estus at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, study a genetic variant in a gene called CD33 that reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The Estus group recently published findings suggesting that this variant promotes production of a truncated form of the CD33 protein that lacks a putative functional domain.

Nathan Vanderford, assistant director for research at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center and assistant professor in the Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology, has a featured article on graduate education in the March 5 edition of Nature. Nature is one of the most prominent and prestigious interdisciplinary scientific journals in the world. Vanderford co-wrote an article titled, "Wanted: Information" with Viviane Callier from the Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship.