News

The University of Kentucky Alumni Association — with a committee chaired by UK Associate Provost for Faculty Advancement G.T. Lineberry — regularly honors outstanding UK faculty members with the UK Alumni Professorship Award.

Last week, more than 200 faculty, staff, and trainees from across the nation attended the Gill Heart & Vascular Institute's Cardiovascular Research Day to share the latest research on cardiovascular health. 

The event, in its 21st year, showcased the research of postdoctoral fellows, students, and faculty, much of it focused on the prevention or reversal of cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and strokes. 

Registration is open for the 2018 Kentucky Neuroscience Clinical-Translational Research Symposium, which will take place Oct. 5, 2018 at the Karpf Auditorium in Pavilion A of the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital.

The symposium provides basic, translational and clinical neuroscience investigators an opportunity to discuss their work, share progress and develop collaborations.  The symposium will include a scientific poster session and four theme-based platform sessions, each with short (10-minute) talks selected from abstract submissions. 

A research facility expressly devoted to addressing and eradicating the state’s most significant health disparities was opened Friday morning by the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees and President Eli Capilouto, and many of the Commonwealth’s leading policymakers.

 The University of Kentucky Sports Medicine Research Institute (SMRI) received a $4 million research contract from the United States Department of Defense (DOD) and Office of Naval Research to expand research focused on determining optimal physical and mental fitness among elite U.S. military members.

For the last three years, the SMRI has worked with the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC) human performance program at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to study injury prevention and create new ways to optimize physical performance in its personnel.

Barbara Nikolajczyk has always had a passion for scientific exploration and discovery. After losing her father to complications from type 2 diabetes, she decided to delve into research examining the connection between inflammation and the disease. 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 5, 2019) — Last September, Guy Bradley began having episodes of severe and sudden confusion with night sweats and nausea.

"He'd wake up and not know where he was or what day it was," said his wife, Harriet. 

Also troubling: the 69-year old suddenly could not find his way around the golf course he'd played all his adult life. 

With each of the four episodes, Harriet and Guy would head to the closest emergency room. Each time, the diagnosis was scary – and yet didn't quite fit.  

The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center announced Friday that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) renewed its national cancer center designation for the next five years. The UK Markey Cancer Center remains one of only 70 NCI-designated centers in the country and the only one in Kentucky.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 15, 2019) — A meeting in early 2010 sparked Dr. Ima Ebong's passion to advocate for greater minority representation in medical school — a passion that has propelled her to national recognition for her work.

Ten researchers from institutions across the U.S. have been selected to participate in the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Advocacy Training Program, a rigorous six-month program aiming to produce the next generation of science advocates. Among those chosen is Aria Byrd, a doctoral candidate in the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and researcher in the Fillmore Brainson Lab. 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 3, 2018) — University of Kentucky undergraduates boarded a bus this past spring for a cross-country trip to the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. Accompanied by several adult escorts, the 89 students were traveling 12 hours to present their research at the 2018 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR).

Before they even boarded the bus, this team of undergraduate researchers had made UK history.

The Kentucky Cancer Registry (KCR) has received a $2.6 million contract from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to continue its participation in the NCI’s Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program. If the NCI exercises all contract options, the contract could be worth up to $31 million over 10 years.

ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a neurodegenerative disease of some fame in the United States. Many Americans know the illness, which currently has no cure, as Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the beloved baseball player whose career and life were cut short by the condition in the 1930s and 40s. More recently, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking died of ALS. Perhaps more than anyone else, Hawking reminds us of the particular cruelty of the disease, which slowly robs a person of muscle movement while leaving their cognitive abilities intact.

 Luke Bradley, Janice Fernheimer and Gregory Luhan received the University of Kentucky 2018 Excellent Undergraduate Research Mentor Award.

Nearly 80 million Americans – one out of every four people – are infected with human papillomavirus (HPV). And of those millions, more than 31,000 will be diagnosed with an HPV-related cancer this year. Despite those staggering figures and the availability of a vaccine to prevent the infections that cause these cancers, HPV vaccination remains low in the United States.

The University of Kentucky Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center held its eighth annual Obesity and Diabetes Research Day, highlighting the work of students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty from around the region. The program features presentations from nationally recognized physician-scientists, as well as researchers chosen from abstract submissions. 

Better delivery of medications to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) is key to addressing the opioid crisis and helping the 2.6 million Americans affected by the disease.

While FDA-approved medications are effective for treating persons with OUD, including buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone, each has its own unique barriers that impact patient access to care. 

When Dr. J. Thomas Murphy moved to the United States in 2002 to practice medicine as an anesthesiologist, he'd never even heard of the opioid drug Vicodin. Originally from Canada, Murphy completed his medical education and training at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia before moving to Saudi Arabia to work as a cardiac anesthesiologist. When he came to the University of Kentucky, he saw the impacts of the opioid epidemic time and again in the cardiac operating room and would eventually feel called to join the fight.

The University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center recently held its ninth annual Markey Cancer Center Research Day, highlighting the work of UK students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty from the past year.

Research Day provides an opportunity for investigators to showcase their work and also view the work of their colleagues across the campus. Markey researchers are housed all across the University, spanning eight colleges and 28 departments.