The University of Kentucky College of Medicine is training more students to be future physicians than ever before. The college is also growing its faculty, its research and its outreach and service to Kentuckians.

Dr. Robert DiPaola is the dean of the UK College of Medicine and vice president for clinical academic affairs for UK HealthCare.

On this week’s episode of “Behind the Blue,” UKPR‘s Carl Nathe talks with DiPaola about why he came to UK nearly three years ago and the positive momentum his college and the entire university are enjoying.

University of Kentucky researchers have identified a potential cellular mechanism that connects a mother's smoking while pregnant with an increased risk in the offspring's obesity later in life. 

Obesity is considered an epidemic in the U.S., with nearly 35 percent of adults and 20 percent of children six to 19 years old deemed obese. Obesity is a serious economic burden as well: more than $150 billion is spent annually on obesity-related healthcare costs in the U.S. alone.

If staying engaged in something you love is the key to staying young, University of Kentucky emeritus faculty member Don Frazier certainly is on the right track.

As a child, Chris Waters was always curious about how things worked. His inquiring mind led him on a path from chemical engineering to biomedical engineering to his current work on a dangerous condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

The mortality rate for this acute lung injury is high — almost 40 percent of ARDS patients die. Appropriate mechanical ventilation makes a huge difference in their prognosis. 

After successfully launching an oncology training program for Appalachian undergrads in 2016, the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center is expanding the program to include high school students. The Appalachian Career Training in Oncology (ACTION) Program – formerly known as CTOP – is funded through a nearly $2.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. 

University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center researcher Daret St. Clair, Ph.D., has been named the 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient from the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine (SfRBM). St. Clair received the award and gave a feature lecture at the SfRBM’s 25th Annual Conference in Chicago earlier this month.

After successfully launching an oncology training program for Appalachian undergrads in 2016, the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center is expanding the program to include high school students. The Appalachian Career Training in Oncology (ACTION) Program – formerly known as CTOP – is funded through a nearly $2.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. 

Researchers at the University of Kentucky have discovered new biological processes by which mutations in the FUS gene cause neurodegeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

FUS is a DNA and RNA binding protein that resides predominantly in the nucleus and appears to play a role in DNA repair and RNA metabolism. In contrast, ALS-related mutations cause the protein to accumulate in the cytoplasm, which can contribute to inclusion bodies – the pathological hallmarks of disease – and neurotoxicity.

By Hilary Brown
Link to original UKnow article.

For plastic surgery resident Dr. Ashley Boustany, spending a week in a hospital in Ecuador working with surgeons and dentist on cleft lips and palates was the best week of her entire residency.

"And after five years of residency," said Boustany with a laugh, "that's really saying something."

The Orthopaedic Trauma Service research team in UK HealthCare’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine is comprised of a team that has made a tremendous impact despite being formed less than two years ago. The team, which includes Drs.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health, announced that University of Kentucky's Matthew Gentry has received the Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship.

Dr. Tannock joined UK in 2004 and is now the chief of endocrinology in the Department of Internal Medicine as well as the associate director of the Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center. Endocrinologists study and treat hormone-related diseases, such as diabetes and thyroid disease. Some of Dr. Tannock's clinical interests include diabetes and insulin resistance, cholesterol disorders and transgender medicine. Barnstable Brown is one of the few centers in Kentucky to offer hormonal management therapies to transgender individuals.

Research at the University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging has identified two potential ways to predict vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) – the second leading cause of dementia behind Alzheimer's disease.

It's been over three years since UK HealthCare's Kentucky Children's Hospital and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center entered into an ambitious partnership to provide pediatric heart surgery services to the families of Kentucky.

The Barnstable Brown family is well-known for a long list of accomplishments and accolades, as well as a long-standing connection to the University of Kentucky. Twins Patricia and Priscilla are former University of Kentucky cheerleaders, and their father, Dale, had an outstanding college basketball career, playing an integral role in UK basketball’s first two championship wins.

Renowned biochemist Xiaoqi Liu, Ph.D., has been named chair of the University of Kentucky Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology.

Liu’s research involves the molecular mechanisms that cause cancer with the goal of using this information to create new avenues for cancer therapy. His work specifically focuses on an enzyme known as Polo-like kinase 1, which plays a central role in controlling cell division and exists at abnormally high levels in many types of cancers, including prostate, pancreatic, melanoma and lung cancers.

Diabetes is a complex condition that requires patients to check in with providers across a number of specialties. Multiple appointments with practitioners can mean endless rounds of scheduling, traveling and follow-ups. Many patients don't have the flexibility to take off work, the means to travel, or access to education materials to help them manage their condition. But thanks to a new grant secured by UK HealthCare's CE Central and their partners at DKBmed, vital screenings for diabetic retinopathy will be conducted by the patient's primary care provider.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are an array of conditions that can occur in a person whose mother consumed alcohol during pregnancy. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), the most severe of these conditions, often results in physical abnormalities, behavioral development issues and intellectual disabilities.  

The NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) on Obesity and Cardiovascular Diseases, in collaboration with the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS) announce the availability of limited funds to support pilot projects focused on research examining obesity-associated diseases.