The University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA) has been selected to participate in a multicenter, landmark $3.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to identify biomarkers for vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID).
UK was one of just seven sites selected for the five-year NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) grant. The other sites are Boston University, Rush University, Johns Hopkins, University of Southern California, UCSF/UC-Davis and the University of New Mexico.
Two faculty members from the University of Kentucky have received three of four funded awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop responses to the opioid injection epidemic that can be implemented by public health systems in rural communities.
Carrie Oser, an associate professor of sociology in the UK College of Arts & Sciences, was awarded a one-year, $150,000 grant for her project "Improving Outcomes after Prison for Appalachian PWIO (People who Inject Opioids): The Role of XR-NTX & Networks." This research aims to understand the factors and barriers related to a
Adam Stickney has lived almost the entire 22 years of his life on the ice with a hockey stick in his hands. The self-described “adrenalin junkie” has always loved sports and says that anything that gets his heart racing is what makes him happy.
Stickney’s mother, Nieshia Stickney, says her son has always loved to skate. “Adam was the kind of kid who couldn’t keep still. He has always been very advanced in his abilities to do things and he learned quickly,” she said. “He got his first pair of skates at age 5 when I enrolled him in roller hockey.
Serotonin is commonly known as the "feel-good" chemical, a neurotransmitter in the brain that plays a large role in elevating a person's mood.
But for 68-year-old Kentucky native Geri McDowell, it's the hormone that nearly took her life.
In 2003, McDowell pursued medical help out of state after experiencing a prolonged gastrointestinal illness that her local doctors couldn't explain. Her ultimate diagnosis: neuroendocrine cancer in her GI tract.
Neuroendocrine tumors are relatively rare, afflicting roughly 8,000 Americans a year.
John Gensel, an assistant professor in the physiology department and the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center, and two members of his lab team—Bei Zhang and Taylor Otto—are featured in this podcast.
Taylor Otto, an undergraduate lab assistant in Gensel’s lab, described UK as being the full package. “We have it all here. It’s a good program to be able to come into, not really knowing what you want to exactly do in the science field, but being able to figure it out at the same time,” said Otto.
In the spring of 2016, the University of Kentucky hired Dr. Robert DiPaola as the new dean for the UK College of Medicine. He had previously been the director of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and vice chancellor for cancer programs at the Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences Center.
To celebrate the lives of those affected by Alzheimer's disease and to honor their caregivers, a purple light will glow at 13 locations on the University of Kentucky campus beginning Tuesday, Nov. 15. "Going Purple" will continue through Friday, Nov. 18.
The promotion is a joint effort of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA) and Elder Care at UK to promote Alzheimer's Awareness Month. Memorial Hall, Gatton College, Main Administration Building, W.T.
His high blood pressure had persisted for more than 20 years. His diabetes was worsening. He'd gone from a prescription of just one drug, to two, then to three, and finally four. He'd taken early retirement from his job as a bank equipment repairman because he had trouble climbing into his van. Then, when he had trouble getting to his beloved garden at his farm in Nicholasville, he decided to take control.
The Kentucky Psychological Association (KPA) named University of Kentucky psychologist and drug disorder researcher William Stoops the 2016 Psychologist of the Year during a conference on Nov. 3.
The KPA annually recognizes a psychologist with outstanding service to the field and the community. An associate professor in the Department of Behavioral Science, Stoops examines the behavioral and pharmacological factors contributing to drug use disorders in the human laboratory.
University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA) hosted its sixth annual Markesbery Symposium on Aging and Dementia last week with speakers focused on brain health and self-care for caregivers.
The two-day program offered sessions for both scientific and community audiences.
On Friday, Nov. 4, the scientific session in the UK Chandler Hospital Pavilion A auditorium featured speakers Dr. Gary Small of UCLA and Dr. Julie Schneider of Rush University, who presented their latest findings and answered questions from the audience.
Clinicians and basic scientists convened to discuss challenges, triumphs and future directions in cardiovascular disease research during the 19th Annual Gill Heart Institute Cardiovascular Research Day on Nov. 4.
Hosted by the UK Gill Heart Institute, the annual research day showcased scientific advancement in understanding and treating the various diseases of the blood vessels and heart. Topics presented at the conference ranged from identifying genomic markers correlated with heart disease to urging members of the public to put CPR training to action during an emergency.
University of Kentucky Researcher Nancy Schoenberg is currently a featured partner on the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) website for her work with Faith Moves Mountains.
Schoenberg, associate dean of research for the UK College of Public Health and professor in the UK College of Medicine, founded Faith Moves Mountains in 2004.
University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center Oncologist Dr. Edward Romond spent his career at UK treating and studying breast cancer, even leading major Phase 3 clinical trials on the breast cancer drug trastuzumab in the early 2000s. Commonly known as Herceptin, this drug became a standard of care for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.
Though he retired from practice last year, Romond continues to work part-time with the research team at Markey, this time pushing toward a cure for a different, more deadly, type of breast cancer.
The second annual Thomas V. Getchell, Ph.D., Memorial Award for excellence in grant writing was presented to Jenna Gollihue, a graduate student in the University of Kentucky Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center, on Nov. 2.
The award honors the memory of Getchell, a former professor of physiology in the UK Department of Physiology who encouraged researchers to improve grant writing skills to acquire research funding. The award supports a travel stipend for a student participating in the annual Grant Writing Workshop.
Fran Feltner, director of the University of Kentucky Center of Excellence in Rural Health, recently received the A. O. Sullivan Award for Excellence in Education on behalf of the center during the 2016 MediStar Awards presented Oct. 25 in Louisville.
Since 2007, IGE Media, publisher of Medical News, has recognized excellence in the business of health care at the exclusive MediStar Awards, which honors seven health care professionals for their achievements in advocacy, innovation, education, leadership, aging care, as well as announces the physician and nurse of the year.
The A. O.
Two University of Kentucky nursing leaders whose work has enhanced nursing practice and uplifted rural health were recently inducted as fellows of the American Academy of Nursing.
Nora Warshawsky, an associate professor in the UK College of Nursing, and Frances Feltner, the director of the Center of Excellence in Rural Health in Hazard, Kentucky, were named 2016 inductees to the AAN.
When we think of research, our minds may possibly conjure up an image of a scientist in a white coat, hunched over a lab table, pouring chemicals into beakers. But research takes a multitude of forms, and flourishes in many different fields. From clinical trials for new cancer medication, to composing and recording an album of original music, and even to studying and refining the most effective ways to cure a country ham. Research often leads us toward answering questions we didn’t even think to ask.
When a major earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale hit the country of Ecuador earlier this year, Dr. Mauricio Villamar and his wife, Dr. Ana Cristina Albuja, both neurology residents at the University of Kentucky and both from Quito, Ecuador, knew they had to do something to help.
The lives of thousands of Ecuadorians were devastated by the destruction of the quake. The damage was significant as were the casualties; 272 killed and over 2,500 injured or missing. Homes, businesses, roads and highways were destroyed.
The University of Kentucky Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) announced today that it received a four-year, $19.8 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Center for Advancing Clinical and Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. CTSA grants support innovative solutions to improve the efficiency, quality, and impact of translating scientific discoveries into interventions or
Nika Larian, a PhD student in Lisa Cassis's lab at the UK Superfund Research Center, is studying the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, or AHR, a transcription factor with roles in drug metabolism and detoxification. She explains that if you knock out AHR in the fat tissue of mice, you can prevent the development of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-induced diabetes. PCBs are toxins that are present in the environment and have been linked to type 2 diabetes.
