News

Alzheimer's disease wreaks emotional havoc on patients, who are robbed of their memories, their dignity, and their lives. It’s financially devastating as well: care for Alzheimer's patients is predicted to top $1 trillion by about the time children born today are having children of their own.

The GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer (formerly known as Lung Cancer Alliance and the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer Foundation) is conducting a statewide education campaign in partnership with the University of Kentucky to bring lung cancer screening awareness to the thousands of Kentuckians at risk for the disease.

University of Kentucky researcher Yvonne Fondufe-Mittendorf affectionately describes the formation of her career as an “accident.”

Originally hailing from the Republic of Cameroon, Africa, Fondufe-Mittendorf had never even seen inside of a lab before moving to Germany to pursue an advanced degree. At the Georg-August Universitaet in Göttingen, she earned a doctorate in molecular genetics.

The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) recently hosted their eighth annual “Meet the Researchers” Day. This event is a field trip given as a prize to two schools in the region who successfully raised more than $1,000 for the LLS’s Pennies for Patients campaign.

The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center celebrated 10 years of Markey Research Day this past Tuesday. Sponsored by the Markey Cancer Foundation, Markey Research Day is an opportunity for researchers who study any aspect of cancer to share their work and receive feedback from colleagues across campus. Markey’s reach extends across 10 of UK’s 16 colleges, and the work on display at Research Day showcases the wide variety and diversity of perspectives that fall under the Markey umbrella. 

This week, the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees approved 16 University Research Professorships for the 2019-20 academic year.

The purpose of the University Research Professorship program is to recognize and publicize research accomplishments of scholars across the full range of disciplines at UK. The award amount is $10,000 for one year, to be used to further the research, scholarship and creative endeavors of the awardee.  

In the past, using the terms "Alzheimer’s disease" and "dementia" interchangeably was a generally accepted practice. Now there is rising appreciation that a variety of diseases and disease processes contribute to dementia.

According to Nina Silverberg, Ph.D., director of the Alzheimer's Disease Centers Program at National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of NIH, in the past many of the people who enrolled in clinical trials for Alzheimer's drugs likely did not have amyloid — the sticky substance that gums up neurons and interferes with thinking — in their brains.  

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. Emphasis for support will be placed on pilot projects that examine the relationship between obesity and cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, cancer, or neurodegenerative diseases.  These pilot grants are intended to assist investigators new to this area of research

After being revived with Naloxone in the emergency room, patients immediately enter withdrawal. Cold chills, vomiting, diarrhea – “dope sickness” is what many call it. The feeling is hard to describe, but many people who’ve experienced it or witnessed it say it’s like the worst flu times 10.

In the largest grant ever awarded to the University of Kentucky, researchers from UK's Center on Drug and Alcohol Research (CDAR) and across campus — in partnership with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the Justice and Public Sa

Mark Williams, MD, Chief Quality and Transformation Officer at UK HealthCare and Director of the University of Kentucky Center for Health Services Research, and Jing Li, MD, MS, Associate Director of the UK Center for Health Services Research, presented the findings from Project ACHIEVE at the National Care Transitions Awareness (NCTA) Day Summit, which was held on NCTA Day, April 16.

Alzheimer's disease wreaks emotional havoc on patients, who are robbed of their memories, their dignity, and their lives.  It’s financially devastating as well: care for Alzheimer's patients is predicted to top $1 trillion by about the time children born today are having children of their own.

To date, there have been very few successes in the pursuit of a treatment. But one drug that looks at Alzheimer's Disease (AD) from a different angle is now ready for its first round of testing in humans.

It's an irrefutable fact that smoking is bad for you. Study after study has proven that smoking increases your risk for cancer, heart disease, diabetes – even blindness.

But dementia? Not so fast. A recent study has demonstrated that smoking is not associated with a higher risk of dementia. 

Through a recent five-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), University of Kentucky faculty Don Frazier and Brett Spear will partner with faculty from qualified minority-serving institutions across the U.S. and Puerto Rico to help improve diversity in science and health care. 

As a longtime pathologist at the University of Kentucky, Dr. Charles Lutz is no stranger to cancer.

Lutz has spent much of his career in the lab, helping patients behind the scenes. At the UK Markey Cancer Center, he works in molecular diagnosis and HLA tissue typing in bone marrow transplantation for leukemia and other cancers. He also helps match patients in end-stage organ failure with an appropriate solid organ transplant for the UK Transplant Center.

As a raft of new treatments for HIV infection have come on the market in the past 20 years, AIDS patients have gotten access to drugs that allow them to live longer.

"These drugs are miracles," said Dr. Richard N. Greenberg, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Kentucky. "Before the advent of anti-retroviral drugs, HIV infection was a death sentence. Now, taken properly, the life span of a person with an HIV infection is practically normal."

Regeneration is one of the most enticing areas of biological research. How are some animals able to regrow body parts? Is it possible that humans could do the same? If scientists could unlock the secrets that confer those animals with this remarkable ability, the knowledge could have profound significance in clinical practice down the road.  

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.