The undergraduate curriculum for the College of Medicine promotes excellence in the foundational scientific and clinical principles supporting the delivery of compassionate, cutting-edge, preventive and therapeutic clinical care. The College prides itself on continually reviewing its curriculum with revisions and additions that represent best practices in modern medicine, correlated with principles of professionalism and cultural competence. The curriculum provides the nowledge base, attitudes and skills necessary for students to become outstanding physicians in the 21st century.

Welcome to the UK Physiology website. You’ll find that our department is a large, diverse community. We have 32 primary faculty, 50 trainees, and almost a hundred laboratory and administrative staff. Our scientific expertise ranges from neurophysiology to cardiovascular biology, from reproductive endocrinology to muscle biology. With $6.8M in extramural support this year, our award-winning investigators are making major advances in biomedical research. Our training programs are preparing scientists for successful careers in academia, industry, and government.
In 2013, UK medical students matched into 22 different specialties for residency. Twenty-two percent elected to stay within the UK HealthCare system, and an additional nine percent elected to stay in Kentucky for residency.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $20 million to the University of Kentucky to move research discoveries to health care solutions more quickly. The five-year funding, awarded through the NIH's institutional Clinical and Translational Science Awards program, is the largest research funding award ever received by UK and will be used to support research at UK's Center for Clinical and Translational Science, making it part of a select national biomedical research consortium. The UK center is led by Dr.
High school seniors and college students interested in pursuing careers as physicians or dentists are eligible to participate in summer programs at the University of Kentucky offered through its Professional Education Preparation Program. The UK PEPP Scholars Summer Program, designed for students from medically underserved areas, is open to high school seniors.
Free information sessions to learn more about the doctorate in physical therapy degree at the UK Center for Excellence In Rural Health in Hazard will be held February 13 and April 9, 2013. Sessions will begin at 2:00 pm in room 218 of the Bailey-Stumbo Building, 750 Morton Blvd., Hazard. To register for one of the sessions, contact student services at 439-3557, ext. 83508 or toll free at 855-859-2374.

The UK Center of Excellence in Rural Health was established in 1990 to address health disparities in rural Kentucky, including a chronic shortage of health professionals and residents’ poor health status. The Center accomplishes this through health professionals education, health policy research, health care service and community engagement. The Center serves as the federally designated Kentucky Office of Rural Health (KORH).

Can novel drug targets be identified to slow the progression of abdominal aortic aneurysms? Is a stimulated renin-angiotensin system the link between obesity and the myriad of obesity-induced cardiovascular diseases, or the development of type 2 diabetes? Do specific bioactive lipids released from platelets and/or the myocardium following myocardial infarction influence platelet function? These are some of the clinically significant pharmacologic questions addressed by researchers within the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences.

The cancer faculty in the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences are interested in studying the molecular basis of cancer initiation and metastatic progression. This involves using molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, and in vivo animal models to unravel novel signaling pathways in an effort to uncover new drug targets for treating cancer. The faculty also are attempting to understand why cancer cells develop drug resistance, a common problem in cancer treatment, and are working on identifying drugs that combat resistance.
The neuroscience faculty of the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences focuses on brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease with an emphasis on how comorbid conditions/diseases (diabetes, stress, lack of sleep, obesity, stroke, age-related hormone loss) affect the aging progress. Other key areas of interest are in drug/alcohol abuse and the factors influencing addiction-related disease states, as well as in Down syndrome research and factors influencing brain inflammation status.