LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 27, 2020) — The Kentucky Network for Innovation and Commercialization (KYNETIC), funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is excited to announce that five of the seven projects recently awarded $50,000 to bring their innovations toward product development are from the University of Kentucky.

These projects include:

Throughout the summer the University of Kentucky College of Medicine has been part of a University-wide pilot program aiming to help boost resumes and build important skills for both UK and non-UK students.

The Summer Badge Program is not your average summer school. The program provides an opportunity for learners to complete courses and earn digital badges, regardless of their current major, with the badges certifying competency in a specific skill.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 24, 2020) — During his chemotherapy treatments, Scott Storey got used to avoiding cold drinks and foods. The regimen he was on, FOLFOX, includes the drug oxaliplatin, which is known to cause “cold dysesthesia” in some patients. It’s a hypersensitivity to the presence of cold that can trigger side effects such as peripheral neuropathy, jaw spasms, shortness of breath and more.

This peculiar fact – and a serendipitous meeting with a stranger – proved to be a lifeline for the retired Air Force veteran.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 24, 2020) — Dr. Reshma Ramlal of the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center was recently named the 2020 Lexington Woman of the Year by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

For Media Interviews on Testing, Please See Information Below Following This Story.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 21, 2020) — The University of Kentucky on Tuesday detailed plans for testing up to 30,000 students for COVID-19 as part of its plan to restart in-class instruction on Aug. 17.

The testing details are the first in a series of announcements UK will make over the next few weeks regarding steps to protect the health, safety and well-being of the campus community as it prepares for the fall 2020 semester.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 22, 2020) — Early this spring, University of Kentucky virologist Rebecca Dutch answered some of our initial questions about COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease. We asked her to take another look at the coronavirus pandemic.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 21, 2020) — A $3.2 million grant will support University of Kentucky College of Medicine research that could pave the way for a treatment for traumatic brain injury (TBI).

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 17, 2020) — Researchers at the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA) recently screened the first participant in the world for what is known as the AHEAD 3-45 study. This work is looking at a study medication, BAN2401, to determine if it can help prevent worsening memory and thinking among individuals who might be at risk for future decline. They are hoping this study finds that BAN2401 does just that and will ultimately help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

Since being selected as the University of Kentucky’s first Bell Addiction Medicine Scholar, Sarah Tully Marks, MD, has been hard at work creating additional educational opportunities for residents in the department of family and community medicine. In early April, she piloted the first section of a new curriculum aimed at developing residents’ skills, knowledge, and understanding so they can more comprehensively treat future patients with substance use disorders.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 14, 2020) — Dennis E. Doherty, MD, professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, has recently been named president of one of the world’s largest networks of global experts in science and health.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 14, 2020) — A new study by researchers at the University of Kentucky identifies a novel function of the enzyme spermine synthase (SMS) to facilitate colorectal cancer growth.

SMS is an enzyme that produces spermine from spermidine, which has been shown to be important for cell growth. However, excessive accumulation of spermidine can have harmful effects on cell viability. How cancer cells maintain a relatively high level of spermidine but below the toxic threshold to facilitate tumor growth is not well understood.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 14, 2020) - A time for action.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 8, 2020) - A grant recently received by Maj-Linda B. Selenica, assistant professor at the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA), is helping further collaborative research efforts. The $125,000 grant comes from The CART Fund. CART (Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust) is a grassroots effort by Rotary Club members throughout the country to provide cutting edge research to help find a cure for Alzheimer’s.

Roughly one in seven Americans live with a disability that impacts daily mobility. The average cost of a wheelchair ranges from $500 to $2,000 without insurance, seriously curbing access to this essential equipment for patients who lack proper coverage. The University of Kentucky’s Center of Excellence in Rural Health (CERH) in Hazard is working to bridge this gap for Kentucky patients through a project that repairs and redistributes used medical equipment to communities in need.

A University of Kentucky College of Medicine researcher has been awarded $1.9 million to continue research examining molecular pathogenesis of Noonan-like syndrome. Emilia Galperin, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry, was awarded a prestigious R35 Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award Grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences that will fund her lab’s research over the next five years. Normal human cell growth is controlled by complex signaling pathways, and errors in these signal transmissions can have serious consequences inclu

In an effort to further enhance the development of our medical students’ professionalism, well-being, and social opportunities throughout their educational experience, the University of Kentucky College of Medicine Office of Medical Education has selected four faculty and staff members to serve in specialized leadership roles within student affairs, creating two new positions in the process. Michelle Lineberry, EdD, will serve as associate dean for student affairs, which is now a 100-percent FTE position to facilitate the cohesive and seamless provision of student services.

The long-running study on aging and brain health at the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA) Alzheimer’s Disease Center has once again resulted in important new findings – highlighting a complex and under-recognized form of dementia. The work was recently published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA): Neurology. “One of the things that we’ve learned in the last decade or so is that a lot of people that we think have dementia from Alzheimer’s disease, actually don’t.

Jill Blake’s diabetes journey began when she was 11 years old. “It was 1982," she said. "I was in the 7th grade, and I began experiencing all of the classic signs and symptoms of Type 1 diabetes.” Back then, she says the disease was not prominent in her small hometown tucked away in the hills of southeastern Kentucky. She remembers very few people in Middlesboro having knowledge of it, and she had no one in her family with diabetes.

Dr. Daniel Moore, from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, recently conducted a study looking at the frequency and use of racial and ethnic data in ophthalmology literature published throughout 2019. He wrote an article outlining his findings which was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association: Ophthalmology. Moore says the description of racial and ethnic data in human trials is relatively unregulated which can lead to confusion and inconsistent reporting.

Recent lab studies by chemists at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (Potsdam, Germany) in close collaboration with virologists at Freie Universität Berlin have shown that extract from the medicinal plant Artemisia annua, also known as Sweet Wormwood, is active against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic. The new potential treatment has been added to the University of Kentucky’s innovative clinical trial for experimental COVID-19 therapies, which was launched by leaders from UK’s Markey Cancer Center, College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy in May.