A team of scientists have designed and tested a novel and promising therapeutic strategy for treating Lafora Disease (LD), a fatal form of childhood epilepsy. This new type of drug, known as an antibody-enzyme fusion, is a first-in-class therapy for LD and an example of precision medicine that has potential for treating other types of aggregate-based neurological diseases.

The 43rd Appalachian Studies Association (ASA) Conference will be held at the University of Kentucky March 12-15, 2020, for the first time in the organization's history, inpartnership with  the University of Kentucky’s Appalachian Center, College of Arts and Sciences and Graduate Appalachian Research Community (GARC) 

By Josh Shepherd

Kristi Grider still tears up when she talks about the day she took her two-month-old son, Kenton, now seven years old, for follow-up hearing testing. His newborn hearing screen, which almost all children receive in U.S. hospitals before they go home, had indicated a potential abnormality, but she was told that her baby probably just had fluid in his ears and that she needn’t worry. 

An estimated 21 million Americans struggle with substance use disorders each year. Unfortunately, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, only about 10 percent of those people are able to access treatment. Few regions have been hit harder by the drug epidemic than Kentucky and need increased access to evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders. The University of Kentucky Department of Psychiatry saw that need and developed a new clinic to better support patients.

By Hilary Brown
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In an editorial published in CNS Spectrums, Dr. Jay Avasarala takes the research community to task for its lack of minority representation in Phase III clinical trials for drugs to treat Multiple Sclerosis (MS).