The motivation driving the work of Pete Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., is personal. His grandmother, Sylvia Becker, died with Alzheimer's disease, and he says his mother then grew terrified of developing the disease.

“It gives me purpose in life to attack that,” Nelson said. As an experimental neuropathologist at the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, he is guided by that motivation. “It is most every researcher’s dream to help identify and classify a disease, and then to go on and help beat it.”

Congratulations to Bobby for successfuly defending his dissertation!

Name, Position, Department, College:

Bobby Murphy, Graduate Research Assistant, Biochemistry Department, College of Medicine

Research Focus:

My research focus has been in characterizing the enzymes needed for polysaccharide utilization in the parasite, Toxoplasma gondii.

What brought you to UK?  

The Gill Awards, given each year through the generous support of the Gill Foundation of Texas, honor individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of cardiovascular medicine, both through research and clinical care. The awards are based on nominations and assessment by a committee of prominent cardiovascular researchers from across the nation.   

As a former college basketball player, March has always been exciting for Rachel Potter. This year, as she prepares to graduate from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, the month holds even more significance.

Instead of March Madness, Potter’s focus is on Match Day, an annual celebration recognizing medical students across the country as they simultaneously learn which residency program they “matched into” and will pursue.

Potter is excited to reach this pivotal career milestone, which she compares to college basketball’s Selection Sunday.

Scott Mair, MD, is a professor of orthopaedic surgery at the UK College of Medicine. He is also one of the physicians who cares for players on the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team. In the spirit of March Madness, Dr. Mair answered questions about what a typical day as a team physician looks like, memories he has gathered over the years, and how this role impacts how he teaches residents and fellows.

Q: As team physician, what are your roles with the basketball team?

Housed in the UK College of Medicine Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology is a new professional master’s degree program that is the only one of its kind in the state of Kentucky, and the fifth of its kind in the country.

And due to its unique educational experience and strong curriculum, this new program is seeing a jump in its number of students.

The Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET) and the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) at the University of Kentucky are now accepting letters of intent for health equity-focused pilot grants through April 1, 2022. This collaborative pilot will fund two 12-month awards for up to $25,000 each in total direct costs. The purpose of this funding mechanism is to support meritorious translational projects which focus on identifying, reducing and/or eliminating health disparities and promoting health equity.

LEXINGTON, Ky (March 11, 2022) — COVID-19 brought to the forefront the challenges of mental health around the world. During the Feb. 26, 2022 Global Mental Health Hack-A-Thon, University of Kentucky students and the Kentucky community proposed solutions to this global health challenge.

EXINGTON, Ky. (March 11, 2022) — A small black lump, about an inch or so in width, rests­ on the bottom of a sealed plastic container. It doesn’t look like much ­­– in fact, it doesn’t look like anything. But this little black lump has untold potential, full of secrets for the researchers at Kentucky Research Alliance for Lung Disease (K-RALD) to discover about the pandemic that has ravaged the world for more than two years.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 10, 2022) — The University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging has been around for nearly half a century. In that time, they have built an international reputation for best-in-class research into a disease that kills more people every year than breast and prostate cancer combined – Alzheimer’s disease. There are several components to the ongoing research at Sanders-Brown, one is exploring ways to detect Alzheimer’s earlier in a person’s life.