With this funding, UofL will launch the Louisville Clinical and Translational Research Center (LCTRC) — a statewide effort that will transform the university’s clinical research infrastructure and find meaningful solutions to combat chronic conditions like cardiac disease, stroke and cancer that disproportionately affect Kentuckians in urban and rural areas alike. The goal is to foster the seamless transition of research findings from the laboratory to patient care.

“UofL has a long-standing commitment to improving the lives of Kentuckians,” said UofL President Kim Schatzel. “This grant represents significant progress toward that commitment, engaging researchers and community members in developing new treatments and training the next generation of experts who will improve lives for years to come.”

LTCRC is funded through the , meant to help institutions build research expertise and infrastructure to support research on diseases and health challenges faced by the populations they serve. CTR-D grants are considered highly competitive.

“CTR grants are a unique resource that are awarded to only a small number of institutions,” said Jon Klein, UofL’s interim executive vice president for research and innovation, a Bucks for Brains endowed researcher and LCTRC’s principal investigator. “UofL’s success in securing this award shows our strength as a research institution and academic medical center, and will drive significant, positive impact throughout the Commonwealth.”

That impact will be far-reaching. LCTRC will enable UofL to launch a series of $75,000 to $125,000 research grants aimed at kickstarting new research projects that help early career and established researchers gather the data needed to secure more NIH or other agency investment.

To train highly competitive, next generation clinical and translational researchers, LCTRC will develop two key programs: Dean’s Scholars, which will pay medical students to spend a full year doing research, and Presidential Scholars, which buys six months of faculty members’ time to do research. These programs will also provide them with additional professional development opportunities, including partnering those researchers with experienced mentors who can help them take their work to the next level.

“The work that this funding will allow us to do is truly transformative,” said Jiapeng Huang, a professor of anesthesiology and perioperative medicine and deputy director for the LCTRC. “LCTRC will develop top notch clinical and translational researchers who cannot only secure more NIH funding, but also develop new therapies and technologies which will benefit our patients and communities in Kentucky. They will shape the future of Kentucky in a very meaningful way. “

LCTRC will also work to expand clinical and translational research infrastructures and develop essential research tools. This includes enhanced research relationships with major health systems, including UofL Health in Louisville and Owensboro Health in western Kentucky. UofL has a long-standing academic partnership with the latter, including a ACGME accelerated family medicine residency program based at Owensboro Health, and an Accelerated Second-Degree Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, where UofL resident physicians and students engage in hands-on clinical experiences in Owensboro.

The new LCTRC funding will double UofL’s clinical trials staff, enabling the university to support more clinical trials at UofL Health, its Owensboro Health rural affiliate, the Louisville Robley Rex VA Medical Center and Norton Healthcare. It also will support ‘citizen science’ projects, giving regular people an opportunity to engage in research backed by grant funding and with mentorship from academic experts.

“Just because you’re not in a lab doesn’t mean you’re not a scientist,” Klein said. “By working collaboratively with our neighbors — with the people who actually live and experience the health problems we’re trying to solve — we can build a bright new future for everyone.”

While the LCTRC builds a bright future for Kentucky, Klein said it wouldn’t be possible without a strong foundation. UofL has been working to secure clinical translational research center funding since 2008, with efforts first being led by Craig McClain, associate vice president for health affairs and research, who worked with Klein to submit this successful proposal. Both are endowed through the Bucks for Brains program, which brings world-class researchers to UofL.��

“The conditions for this grant had to be just right — we had to have an outstanding academic medical center, experience translating research into medical treatments and the talented people who could bring this to life,” McClain said. “With LCTRC, we want to pass the torch. We will use this funding to build the infrastructure and next generation of talent that will help bring even more success to Kentucky researchers and drive new technologies that will save and improve lives.”��

• Inflammation and Microbiome
• Bioinformatics��
• Medical informatics
• Immunogenomics��
• Pandemic preparedness��
• Nutrition and health
• Improved health outcomes
• Cybersecurity��
• Energy storage��
• Nano-enabled medicine and healthcare

The data on the����comes from the Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tool (RePORT) from the NIH.

David Scott, PhD, associate dean for Research and Enterprise at ULSD, says continued growth of the school’s research program stems in part from the Research Challenge Trust Fund, which is also known as Bucks for Brains. This program, which was first enacted by the Kentucky legislature in 1997, committed additional funds for research at universities.

“Bucks for Brains allowed ULSD to invest in clinical and PhD scientists and to steadily improve our research capabilities and successes,” he said.

This research has an impact far beyond Kentucky, he adds.

“ULSD’s research helps to identify problems related to dentistry. By seeking insight into these problems, we can ultimately find ways and means to improve and prevent dental diseases, conditions and their systemic consequences around the world,” Scott said.

The research at ULSD focuses on three areas in particular:��craniofacial developmental biology, oral microbiology and oral immunology.��However, Scott notes that the school’s research presence is growing in other areas due to recent investments in tenure-track faculty. Those areas are oral imaging, clinical periodontics, behavioral sciences and dental materials.

Scott says collaboration with others at the University of Louisville has also contributed to the dental school’s research success.��

“Within UofL, our collaborations include, but are not limited to, projects developed alongside individuals in the Speed School of Engineering, the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology,” Scott said. “Such bridge-building has facilitated success in federal research training grants designed to maximize opportunities for the next generation of dental scientists.”

This story was written by Paige Moore and originally appeared on the .��

As Microsoft establishes a physical location downtown, the city will serve as a sort of urban laboratory to strengthen Louisville’s core industries like health care and manufacturing, which face a risk of automation from the progression of AI technology. The AI Innovation Digital Alliance with Microsoft, in part, will help companies in vulnerable industries re-skill and up-skill their workforce to meet the changing economy.

“We are so excited to partner with Microsoft and Mayor (Greg) Fischer to leverage our workforce, prepare students for the future and strengthen our vital town-gown relationship,” UofL president Neeli Bendapudi said during the June 7 announcement.��

The Microsoft news came on the heels of the that UofL will partner with IBM to establish an IBM Skills Academy focused on digital learning and technology skills. It will be housed in a newly-created Center for Digital Transformation on the Belknap Campus and will open by the start of the fall semester.

Similar to the Microsoft partnership with the city of Louisville, IBM’s partnership with UofL will cover fast-growing technology areas like AI to bridge the growing digital divide.

“It’s important for us to be nimble with this, to be truly transformative, and to say, ‘We see what’s coming, how can we be proactive?’” Bendapudi said.��

These efforts are catching plenty of attention. Last month, Louisville Business First devoted its cover story to UofL’s position to be the impetus behind . As an example, the story spotlights UofL’s Bucks for Brains program, which has yielded a number of innovations from the nation’s top researchers and scholars who have been recruited through the program since its inception in 1997.

Success stories from the program include Cellular Therapeutics, a research group created by Dr. Suzanne Ildstad in the late 90s dedicated to developing a technology for organ transplantation. Cellular Therapeutics’ iteration, Talaris Therapeutics, secured a $100 million investment in April, which will go toward a unique cell therapy technology that improves the lives of kidney transplant recipients.

“Ildstad’s story is the embodiment of the kind of high-impact, transformative work that happens when investments are made in UofL’s mission as the only public research university in the city,” Business First says.

Such tech-focused efforts are being noticed nationally as well. In May, titled, “Four Reasons Why The University Of Louisville’s IBM Skills Academy Is A Very Smart Move,” touting the mutual benefits between the university and its corporate partner.

According to Forbes, the partnership helps address the continuing digital divide and boosts economic development in the area. It is also expected to provide a recruiting advantage for the university.

“College students express two major motives for pursuing their education – to prepare themselves for a good job and to gain knowledge so they are broadly prepared for a successful life,” the story says. “The IBM Skills Academy at the University of Louisville offers one path to help synergize the two main purposes of college. Students can acquire marketable technology skills at the same time they benefit from the broader education that good universities provide.”

In June, Forbes piggybacked off this idea with another article illustrating the , a nonprofit membership organization comprised of Fortune 500 executives, major university presidents and other educational leaders. Once again, the IBM/UofL partnership was highlighted as an example.

“American businesses are increasingly taking the lead in developing and ‘up-skilling’ their workforce in critical digital and technological competencies. Whether it’s through increasingly generous employer-provided educational benefits … or through specific company-university partnerships like the��, the rise of business-directed and employer-supported curricula is one of higher education’s most noteworthy trends,” the story says.

Such efforts were also highlighted in , which focused specifically on how the university is helping the city of Louisville bring tech training to scale. The story spells out the need for such work, noting that Louisville has just 79% of the technology jobs it should have for a city its size. In the past decade, Louisville has added just 17,000 jobs in the professional scientific technical services industry, for example, compared to Nashville, which added 75,000 such jobs.��

Based on estimates, the city of Louisville would need to add about 1,500 jobs annually for four years to catch up. This is why UofL is stepping up.

In addition to corporate partnerships, UofL is also sharpening its focus on commercialization. For example, in May, the university to help guide research-backed invention to market.��

UofL ranks as one of only 120 U.S. “Research 1” universities with “very high research activity,” according to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher ����ֱ��. The EIRs will amplify UofL’s existing efforts aimed at getting technologies born from that research to market, which include a “superfecta” of��.

Funding for the EIRs comes from the Louisville Entrepreneurship Acceleration Partnership (LEAP), another public-private partnership led by UofL and backed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

LEAP was . During the launch, President Bendapudi noted the objectives for LEAP were to commercialize university research, enhance the region’s reputation for innovation, grow jobs and economic development and build the next generation of leaders.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg of all the work on campus that has gone into helping transform the city and the region into an innovation hub. There is also the impact that Giddy, the Hive, FirstBuild and others have made.

In September, UofL will team up with GE-backed FirstBuild to host a , which will include exhibitions, competitions, workshops and more. According to Kevin Nolan, CEO of GE Appliances, the Maker Faire will be the largest gathering of inventors, creators and makers that this city has ever seen. Mayor Greg Fischer added that the event will help the city thrive and grow. And, as all of this progress is happening, the University of Louisville is at the center of it all.

, formerly known as Regenerex LLC, is using technology developed at UofL to allow living donor kidney transplant recipients to stay off immunosuppression drugs for the rest of their lives. In a Phase 2 study, the cell therapy, called FCR001, allowed 70% of living donor kidney transplant patients to be durably weaned off all of their immunosuppression treatments.

The unique cell therapy technology is a result of pioneering research conducted at UofL by the team of Suzanne Ildstad. Ildstad has spent 21 years as a “” researcher at UofL. She founded Talaris around her research and is the company’s chief scientific officer.

“This financing moves us one step closer to helping organ transplant recipients no longer be dependent on immunosuppressive drugs, resulting in a greatly improved quality of life,” Ildstad said. “The support and research infrastructure at UofL have been invaluable in our journey to this important juncture.”

The technology developed by Ildstad’s team was patented at UofL and is exclusively licensed by Talaris from UofL’s ��. Talaris plans to use the new funding to carry out a phase 3 clinical trial of FCR001. Longer term, the company plans to study whether FCR001 could be used for other organ transplants.

Talaris has about 25 employees in Louisville. Talaris’ research and cell processing facilities are based at UofL and the company also has a corporate office in Boston. As part of its licensing agreement with Talaris, the university will receive royalties from sales of any licensed products.

“This cutting-edge UofL research can have a significant impact on human health,”��said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi.��“This is a prime example of our��ability to work with industry partners and investors to help turn innovative research into valuable new products.”

Check out footage from the press conference:��

His office is responsible for the facilitation, coordination, assessment and recognition of the community engagement activities of faculty, staff and students, and also directs the activities of the .

In addition to serving on numerous community boards, Hall is co-founder��of the Louisville Public Radio Partnership Board of Directors. The Louisville native, Central High School graduate, is also a three-time��Golden Gloves Champion. He earned his undergraduate from Dartmouth College, Law degree from Harvard University and Master of the Arts in Theological Studies from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

UofL News had the chance to talk to Hall about his career and how the concept of community engagement has changed in the past three decades.��

UofL News: What made you come back to Louisville?

Dan Hall:��I was approached by UofL to oversee governmental, public and community relations. I accepted the position thinking it would provide a great opportunity to reconnect with the community before resuming my law practice. Little did I know at the beginning that it would become a labor of love for 31 years. Also, my wife Sheila and I were delighted to return home to raise our three young children in a community that is so family friendly. ����

UofL News: In your time here, what has surprised you the most and what accomplishments have made you most proud?

Dan Hall:��I was pleased to discover that very few things of significance happen in this community without the direct or indirect involvement of this wonderful university. As an anchor institution, UofL usually is involved in major new initiatives in the areas of education, healthcare, economic development, technology, social services and the arts and culture. I soon realized that UofL provided me with a wonderful platform from which to make a difference in our community.��

I am particularly proud to have been the first African American appointed to a vice president position here at UofL. I’m proud that I successfully secured a prominent role for UofL during the enactment of the Kentucky Postsecondary ����ֱ�� Improvement Act of 1997. This historic law assigned to UofL its current mission to become a premier metropolitan research university.�� As a part of this legislation, the General Assembly appropriated the initial funds to create the Research Challenge Trust Fund known as the “Bucks for Brains” program. This historic legislation and funding established the foundation and trajectory for UofL to become a major research university that is helping to transform and advance our community.��

Of course, I’m also very proud of the nationally recognized Signature Partnership Initiative with west Louisville. Last year more than 2,000 UofL undergraduate, graduate and professional students, along with over 600 UofL faculty and staff, participated in more than 100 research or service-learning projects in collaboration with many community partners.

UofL News: How has the concept of community engagement changed during your career?

Dan Hall: In the world of higher education, community engagement is now regarded as a critically important pedagogy for teaching students, conducting research or focusing service. In years past, community engagement simply was deemed to be a one-way street with the university reaching out to community to benefit society. The academy now understands there is a mutual benefit to community engagement. Not only does the community benefit, but student learning outcomes are advanced when students leave campus and apply what they learn in the classroom or laboratory to solving or addressing real-world issues.

UofL News: What has been your favorite thing about working here? What is your favorite part of campus?

Dan Hall: Having access to good basketball and football tickets has been my favorite thing about working at UofL. The panoramic views of campus from the windows in my office on the second floor of Grawemeyer Hall overlooking the Oval are second to none.

UofL News: What are your retirement plans?

Dan Hall: My family, including five grandchildren, will now have me full-time.�� I look forward to staying connected with community sharing the love of God and sharing the word of God.

Retirement party
The university community is invited to attend a retirement reception for Hall on June 22, from 4-6 p.m. in the University Club Ballroom.

A short program will begin at 5 p.m.��Additional information is .��

“These findings suggest that living in a polluted environment could promote the development of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke more pervasively and at an earlier stage than previously thought,” said Aruni Bhatnagar, PhD, study co-author and the at the University of Louisville. “Although we have known for some time that air pollution can trigger heart attacks or strokes in susceptible, high-risk individuals, the finding that it could also affect even seemingly healthy individuals suggests that increased levels of air pollution are of concern to all of us, not just the sick or the elderly.”

“These results substantially expand our understanding about how air pollution contributes to cardiovascular disease by showing that exposure is associated with a cascade of adverse effects,” said C. Arden Pope, PhD, study lead author and Mary Lou Fulton Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

is known to contribute to cardiovascular disease and related deaths. In 2004, the American Heart Association released a , updated in 2010, warning of the risk and recommending that people talk to their doctor about avoiding exposure to air pollution specific to their area. What remained unclear, however, was how air pollution actually affects the blood vessels to increase the risk of disease.

For this study, investigators analyzed the component of air pollution known as fine particulate matter — the tiny pieces of solid or liquid pollution emitted from motor vehicles, factories, power plants, fires and smoking. They found that periodic exposure to fine particulate matter was associated with several abnormal changes in the blood that are markers for cardiovascular disease. As air pollution rose, they found:

• Small, micro-particles indicating cell injury and death significantly increased in number;
• Levels of proteins that inhibit blood vessel growth increased; and
• Proteins that signify blood-vessel inflammation also showed significant increases.

Study participants included 72 healthy, nonsmoking adults in Provo, Utah. Their average age was 23, most were white and more than half were male. During the winters of 2013, 2014 and 2015, participants provided blood samples, which researchers then tested for markers of cardiovascular disease. Due to the unique weather and geographical features of Provo, they were able to evaluate these informative blood markers with various levels of air pollution.

However, researchers noted that the third study year, 2015, was relatively unpolluted, which could have affected the results.

The other co-authors from the study were also from UofL and include:��James P. McCracken, PhD; Wesley Abplanalp, PhD; Daniel J. Conklin, PhD; and Timothy O’Toole, PhD. The National Institutes of Health funded the study.