Em Neiport, MA, is project manager at the College of Medicine and staff co-chair of the LGBTQ* Advisory Committee.

Q: What are your roles at the UK College of Medicine?

A: I’m a project manager in the College of Medicine. The projects I’ve worked on are so varied and have allowed me to see just how expansive academic medicine really is. It’s fascinating! The best part of my role is having a chance to work with so many amazing people in all areas of the college.

University of Kentucky Provost David Blackwell has announced Dr. Charles “Chipper” Griffith III has been named the acting dean of the UK College of Medicine, effective July 1, 2021.

Griffith will serve as acting dean while Dean Bob DiPaola serves as acting provost, from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022. At that time, DiPaola intends to return to the College of Medicine and Griffith will return to his current roles.

A study by several researchers at the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging (SBCoA) was recently highlighted in AlzForum. The study focuses on polyamines, the nitrogen-packed aliphatic molecules produced by our own cells and found in the foods we eat. They have been described by some as anti-aging generators.

Meriem Bensalem-Owen, MD, and Brian Gold, PhD, might not have ever had the chance to work on projects together. Dr. Bensalem-Owen is a physician who spends much of her time at the patients’ bedside, reviewing video-EEG monitoring studies, or in clinic treating patients with epilepsy, and Dr. Gold is a researcher who studies age-related brain and cognitive changes in the lab.

But thanks to the University of Kentucky College of Medicine’s Alliance Research Initiative, they have joined forces to better localize, and ultimately treat, epileptic seizures.

In his 40 years at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Michael T. Piascik, PhD, has mentored hundreds of medical students and graduate students while bringing key funding to the college as a researcher to help produce groundbreaking discoveries in pharmacology.

After a long and distinguished career, Dr. Piascik has announced he will retire, effective July 1.

The Department had twelve publications listed in PubMed for the month of May 2021.

1: Zhang Z, Cheng L, Zhang Q, Kong Y, He D, Li K, Rea M, Wang J, Wang R, Liu J, Li Z, Yuan C, Liu E, Fondufe-Mittendorf YN, Li L, Wang C, Liu X, Han T. Co-Targeting Plk1 and DNMT3a in Advanced Prostate Cancer. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2021 May 29:e2101458. doi: 10.1002/advs.202101458. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34051063.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 4, 2021) — University of Kentucky Department of Neuroscience Professor Greg Gerhardt, Ph.D., hypothesizes that the balance of glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) — two main neurotransmitters in the brain — contributes to Alzheimer’s disease and age-related declines in cognition and memory.

Raise awareness about memory loss, aging and Alzheimers disease among the Black/African American community.

Please Join Us!

Program 1: May 14 - Pastor Thomas Baker, Senior Pastor of Christway MBC Louisville, KY

By Hilary Brown
(Click here to visit UKnow)

It seemed like nothing at first. Dave Hoover thought he had a sinus infection.

Cheavar Blair, PhD, a 2017 graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, is now a postdoc at the University of California-Santa Barbara.