After completing her bachelor’s degree in Tennessee and medical school in India, Abraham arrived in Louisville seven years ago. She was shadowing doctors and getting ready for a medical residency when she became intrigued by the idea of helping not just individuals but populations.

“I am a numbers person so I was comparing clinical versus population health data and seeing how research could impact a lot more people,” Abraham said.

Once she decided to embark on her master’s degree in public health at the University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences (SPHIS), Abraham met Stephanie Boone, a two-time UofL alumna (MPH ’08, PhD ’13) and associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health and faculty member at the Brown Cancer Center, Boone encouraged her to apply for the PhD program and got her involved in epidemiological research.

Now a graduate of SPHIS, Abraham has been working as the coordinator of the Kentucky Core (Boone, PI) of the RURAL (Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal) Study. This is a large National Institutes of Health-funded study to conduct community engagement and evaluate heart and lung diseases among rural populations in four states: Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Abraham has connected with local communities in Perry, Breathitt, Boyle and Garrard counties in Kentucky, to help recruit more than 1,000 residents and provide education and resources for unmet needs for hundreds at community meetings and events.

Since 2021, Abraham has been building a network, spreading the message and promoting the study, becoming a constant presence and trusted local contact in these counties. A mobile exam unit is traveling county by county and offering free health screenings to participants to determine lung, heart and overall wellness indicators.

Abraham, Boone and epidemiology graduate assistant Scotland Stewart, along with Community Advisory Boards established from each of the counties, meet with residents virtually or in person at city councils, church events, health fairs and festivals.

“You don’t want them to think you’re just there to use them for their data and leave,” Abraham said. “We want to share the results with the community and help them find funding or grants and design programs for what the data shows is lacking in their community.”

Establishing the participant cohort for the study has been a game changer for each community’s health now and in the future. “The CT scan on the mobile unit can measure Coronary Artery Calcium, which could show an individual if they are at risk for future heart disease, but also the scans have found incidental findings in the lung or other health concerns that people did not know existed, which is life-changing,” Abraham said. “It’s gratifying to know that your work does mean something and it is actually making a difference.”

Abraham plans to continue in her role until study participant recruitment is completed in Kentucky. After that, Abraham said she hopes to seek post-doc opportunities to take her population level research one step further into dissemination and implementation.

“Research shouldn’t just be about publishing papers, it should be about translating your findings to make a positive impact in people’s lives – that’s where my heart is.”

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, ���Ǵڳ�’s interim executive vice president for research and innovation, a Bucks for Brains endowed researcher and LCTRC’s principal investigator. “���Ǵڳ�’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 ���Ǵڳ�’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.”��

Arsenic is highly poisonous and occurs naturally in some rocks and soil. As a result, of exposure is drinking contaminated water, particularly ground water from private wells. More than get their water from private wells, including many in areas of Kentucky that may be contaminated from previous coal mining.��

“What people don’t realize is that private wells and even public water supplies serving smaller numbers of people are not regulated,” said , a UofL researcher who’s been studying arsenic’s role in cancer for more than 25 years. “People using private wells for their water are on their own to test for toxic chemicals.”��

Chronic exposure to low doses of arsenic, as from drinking water, can cause a host of serious health concerns, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and several cancers, including skin, lung and bladder cancer. In high doses, arsenic can also be fatal.��

States and collaborator, , backed by two new grants from the National Institutes of Health and American Cancer Society totaling $3.6 million, are working to discover what specifically about arsenic exposure can cause and accelerate the development of those conditions. Understanding this cause and effect could help researchers and public health officials find ways to keep people safe and healthy.

States and Banerjee believe it may all come down to how arsenic binds with proteins that help the body regulate the expression of genes. When gene expression isn’t properly regulated, your cells can begin to behave abnormally, mutating and multiplying out of control and not dying when they should. In other words, they become cancer cells.��

Many proteins need zinc to do their jobs properly. When arsenic binds with these proteins instead, it takes the place zinc would normally fill. This disables these regulatory proteins and accelerates dysregulation.

Even worse, Banerjee said, is that there’s significant overlap between the communities who drink potentially contaminated well water and those who are more likely to have a zinc deficiency. If the body doesn’t have enough zinc to bind with the regulatory proteins in the first place, it can increase your risk of some of the same health concerns as arsenic exposure — including heart disease and cancer. An of the global population is zinc deficient.��

“It’s a double whammy,” said Banerjee, an assistant professor of pharmacology. “The populations we’re talking about are largely impoverished and rural, who are already more likely to be zinc deficient because they don’t have access to healthy, nutritious foods. So, you have a lack of zinc in the diet exacerbated by arsenic preventing what zinc they have from doing its job in the body.”��

There isn’t currently any medication that treats chronic arsenic exposure. However, Banerjee said, there may be a simple, over-the-counter solution — if the problem is a lack of zinc, it may be treatable with a zinc supplement. His research has shown zinc supplementation can mitigate or even regress some of the worse effects of arsenic exposure.��

“Zinc is over-the-counter, which makes it cheaper and readily accessible,” Banerjee said. “But I don’t think a lot of people are even aware of the potential danger of well water or what it can cause. We really hope this work can help those people.”

Part of the growth in numbers comes as the result of major strides in the areas of affordability, access and equity, meaning Cardinals from a variety of backgrounds can take advantage of learning opportunities and experiences with reduced financial burden. This academic year, UofL announced the��expansion of its Border Benefit Award��that allows students from some neighboring states to attend UofL at in-state tuition rates, along with the investment of $2.4 million��toward the Cardinal Commitment Grant for in-state residents.

UofL jumped 15 places in the 2023-24 U.S. News and World Report����ranking, from No. 146 to No. 131, and also topped the list of “best values” among national universities in Kentucky.��In the past few years, Cardinals have graduated with the second-lowest student debt among all Kentucky four-year public universities.

New leadership helps guide the way

Taking the helm in early 2023, ���Ǵڳ�’s 19^th president, Kim Schatzel, spent six months in some 40 listening sessions to learn what was important to ���Ǵڳ�’s students, staff and faculty, as well as community and government leaders.

She outlined��her first eight priorities��in September, and those priorities became the basis for a new 2023-2025��. Schatzel was��officially inaugurated��on Sept. 29 in a joyous ceremony filled with music and tradition that was held on The Oval outside Grawemeyer Hall. The historic event took place during ���Ǵڳ�’s yearlong celebration of its��225th anniversary.��In recognition of her leadership, Schatzel was named among Louisville��Business First’s Power 50��for 2024, which identifies the city’s most influential people in business and related communities. The Louisville Defender Newspaper also named Schatzel as one of the “Women Who Choose to Challenge” in the publication’s women’s history recognition edition.����

In spring 2024, the university chose Gerry Bradley as permanent executive vice president and university provost. No stranger to the Cardinal community, Bradley had served as dean of the����since 2016 and as interim provost since July 2023. He previously held that same role from January 2022 to February 2023.

Several other top leadership positions have been filled throughout 2023 and 2024, including: Karlis Kaugars, vice provost for information technology services and chief information officer; Dayna Touron, dean, ;��John W. Miller Jr., dean, ; and Kathryn (Katie) Cardarelli,��dean, . This summer, Whitney Nash becomes dean of the , which celebrates 50 years of educating and preparing nurses for distinctive careers.

UofL also welcomed Pat Kelsey to lead the men’s basketball program, infusing excitement and enthusiasm into Card Nation.

Renovations, new infrastructure boost student success

The university is updating facilities and building new infrastructure to ensure students have the physical space to unleash their potential.

The��Center for Military-Connected Students��debuted its newly renovated offices in Brodschi Hall on Belknap Campus. The center focuses on meeting the needs of the more than 2,300 military-connected students enrolled at UofL. At the , construction of a new four-story, $90 million student success hub is underway. It will help us produce the next generation of engineers.

And thanks to a tremendously successful legislative session, the state budget appropriated $260 million toward a new Health Sciences Center Campus simulation center and collaboration hub. That’s the largest amount of funding for a single project in ���Ǵڳ�’s history. It also is the largest project being funded in Louisville and represents the most general fund support for any single project among Kentucky’s colleges and universities this session. UofL also received about $69 million for needed repairs on some existing facilities.

���Ǵڳ�’s research and innovation powerhouse flourishes

Research and innovation continued to soar to new heights in academic year 2023-24. Just a few highlights were:

• More than $22 million in funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration was awarded to the Schools of��Medicine ($16 million)and��Nursing ($6.5 million)��for physician and nurse training to help increase Kentuckians’ access to health care, particularly in underserved rural and urban areas. ��
• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded four grants totaling $11.6 million to researchers affiliated with ���Ǵڳ�’s��to study factors affecting heart health. Through these projects, they hope to better understand how environmental exposures and tobacco products can affect the cardiovascular system, as well as how remodeling takes place in the heart after a heart attack.
• UofL researcher Cheri Levinson has received an $11.5 million grant from the NIH to continue her work addressing��the devastating effects of eating disorders.
• UofL researchers Susan Harkema, Charles Hubscher and collaborators recently won a $1 million grant from the NIH aimed at helping spinal cord injury patients regain function. They are now among four teams exclusively invited to participate in another competition with a potential prize pool of $5 million.
• More than 100 UofL researchers are among the top 2% most-cited in the world, according to a new��compiled by Stanford University and Elsevier. Citations show the value other researchers around the globe place on UofL research.
• Research conducted in ���Ǵڳ�’s Micro/Nano Technology Center is investigating whether the antibacterial properties of��cicada wings��can be turned into an antimicrobial for use in places like food service, health care facilities and medical devices.��
• More than 80 of ���Ǵڳ�’s top researchers, scholars and artists��were honored��in October at the 2023 Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity Awards ceremony.
• Four University of Louisville innovators have been selected by the prestigious National Academy of Inventors for its 2024 class of Senior��Members.��The four inventors selected from UofL–the only ones from Kentucky–are:��Thad Druffel, Nobuyuki Matoba, Thomas Roussel and Jagannadh Satyavolu.

Commitment to serve, transform the community��

Throughout the 2023-24 academic year, Cardinals have utilized knowledge and resources to advance the mutual needs of the university and the community. Earlier this spring, more than 400 students danced for 18 hours at the annual raiseRED marathon.��

The students raised more than $516,000 for Norton Children’s Cancer Institute and the . This is ���Ǵڳ�’s largest student philanthropic effort. It has raised more than $5 million in its 11-year history.

In the mean time, former firefighter James Cripps was awarded one of the ��for teaching firefighters throughout Kentucky about occupational cancer and mitigation strategies. A manufacturing administrator at the UofL Health��, he hopes to eliminate some of those risks.

, meanwhile, celebrated a milestone:��200 years��of compassionate care, medical innovation and serving the underserved. It was Kentucky’s first hospital, first admitting patients in a facility downtown in 1823. Now, to address a real need for citizens south and west of Louisville, UofL Health recently cut the ribbon on UofL Health – South Hospital in Bullitt County just off Interstate 65.

As part of ���Ǵڳ�’s ongoing effort to collaborate with five K-12 schools in West Louisville, Central High School Pre-Medical Magnet Program students received white coats this spring, recognizing their hard work and encouraging them to stay focused on their goals. Students shadow UofL doctors and get to practice performing simpler procedures, like sutures, through this immersive curriculum.

Recently, ���Ǵڳ�’s McConnell Scholars and others heard a presentation by Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama, who spoke about the importance of respect and trust in building relationships to address the country’s most pressing issues. A guest of the McConnell Center, Britt spoke as part of its Distinguished Speaker Series. Celebrating its 30th year, the center also brought��Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, to Belknap Campus Oct. 30. She gave a public talk and met separately with the McConnell Scholars.

Students begin their next chapter at commencement

On May 11, more than 2,000 of the approximately 3,100 students who applied for degrees and certificates, will go across the stage at the KFC Yum! Center signifying their academic success.

This Commencement holds particular significance for the high school class of 2020, which graduated at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. For some, it will be their first chance to celebrate their educational achievement by taking part in a complete traditional ceremony.

UofL President Kim Schatzel will preside at both the 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. ceremonies. The����also will host a doctoral hooding and graduation ceremony for more than 100 graduates at 2 p.m. Friday, May 10, on Belknap Campus in the Swain Student Activities Center (SAC) Ballroom, second floor. All of these ceremonies will be broadcast live at��.

The five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is an extension of a��Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant awarded in 2018��to study the connection between those microorganisms — such as bacteria, yeasts, fungi, viruses and protozoans — and disease. The work could lead to discoveries in, among others, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, diabetes, periodontitis and colorectal cancer.

The grant will support research by three faculty members focused on microorganisms in the mouth, GI tract and the blood-brain barrier, said Richard Lamont, principal investigator for the grant and chair of School of Dentistry Department of Oral Immunology and Infectious Diseases.

“Collectively, these three projects provide innovative approaches to an increased understanding of the host-microbe interface as it defines health and disease and these advances will establish the basis for new therapeutic approaches,” Lamont said.

The School of Medicine’s Department of Microbiology & Immunology also is involved in the COBRE research, including interim chair Haribabu Bodduluri, the center’s co-director.

“An essential feature of these awards is the support of shared resources for development of new research areas,”��said Bodduluri.��“In the past few months since the renewal, we were awarded supplemental funding to the COBRE that enhances the research core facilities and initiates a novel��‘Team Science’��project.”

Gerry Bradley, interim university provost, said the NIH grant allows UofL to further the COBRE’s groundbreaking research, development of new innovations and training the next generation of scientists.

“This huge commitment from the government reinforces that UofL is one of the top dental schools in the United States in terms of the value of research work conducted here and research funding dollars,” he said.

The original COBRE grant allowed UofL to establish an interdisciplinary research program to study associations linking microbiome with inflammation and disease. The grant provides junior research faculty with seed funding to build potential for independent research funding. The first five faculty researchers involved are successfully continuing their research with other financial support.

“As a top-tier research institution, UofL works to expand understanding and find solutions to important problems,” said Kevin Gardner, executive vice president for research and innovation. “The work of Drs. Lamont and Bodduluri, along with their��team, for example, could lead to life-changing therapies, treatments and more that could dramatically improve the lives of people living with numerous conditions.”

Kevin Sokoloski, assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology and participant in ���Ǵڳ�’s initial COBRE grant, said the program helped his research by connecting him with a robust scientific community focused on inflammation and pathogenesis.

“Our ongoing involvement in the COBRE program has accelerated our success and continues to enhance our scientific mission,” Sokoloski said.

The newly funded researchers are:

• Fata Moradali,��(Oral Immunology and Infectious Diseases), who will address periodontitis, a common condition driven by a synergistically virulent bacterial community that triggers destructive inflammatory responses in the periodontal, or gum tissues.
  ��
• James Collins,��(Microbiology & Immunology), who will investigate the GI tract pathogen��C. difficile, an evolving organism whose ability to cause disease can be enhanced by the nutritional microenvironment.��
  ��
• Yun Teng,��(Department of Medicine), who will focus on the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Increased permeability of the BBB accelerates the aging process and the progression of age-related diseases.��

View the press conference .��

Watch the press conference:

The UofL Hepatobiology and Toxicology Center was created in 2016 with an $11.5 million grant from the NIH to support unique research focused on liver injury and disease and toxicology. The center supports leading-edge research conducted by junior investigators with mentorship from senior researchers, as well as pilot projects and core laboratory facilities that support research across the university. The researchers’ goal is reducing the impact of many types of liver illness through prevention and the development of therapies.

Kentucky leads the nation in increases in cirrhosis-related deaths and in liver cancer-related deaths. According to research published in , mortality due to cirrhosis has been increasing in the U.S. since 2009, with the greatest increase in deaths from cirrhosis in Kentucky. Non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases affect approximately 25% of adults and 10% of children in the U.S.

“This vital research at the University of Louisville advances the health of Kentuckians and people throughout the world,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. “Through this center, UofL researchers will continue to expand their work to find ways to prevent and treat liver illnesses, many of which today have no FDA-approved treatment.”

Researchers at the focus on liver injury, nutrition and gut-liver interactions as well as interactions between the liver and environment, toxicants and drugs. Their ultimate goal is to contribute to the prevention and treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (a major cause of cirrhosis of the liver), alcoholic liver disease and liver cancer.

“This incredible cohort of researchers is discovering new ways to address the liver illnesses that afflict so many Kentuckians. I am thrilled that young researchers will continue to be supported with COBRE funding at UofL,” said Toni Ganzel, dean of the UofL School of Medicine.

In its first five years, four of the funded junior investigators in the UofL H&T Center received independent NIH research funding, making way for a new cohort of project researchers. The renewal of COBRE funding encourages a continuous supply of researchers in specialized areas of medicine and the search for new disease treatments.

“This unique thematic center is focused on liver injury, disease and toxicology. We evaluate critical barriers in our understanding of the development and progression of liver disease and we define potential therapeutic targets that could transform current practice,” said Craig McClain, associate vice president for health affairs and translational research and principal investigator for the UofL H&T Center. “This new phase will build on that success and extend and strengthen the scope of the program.” ��

“To push past the limitations of existing therapeutics, you need COBRE infrastructure grants to establish cutting-edge biomedical research centers and capabilities,” said Joshua L. Hood, a project investigator in the UofL H&T Center. “The more of these capabilities we have, the more we can explore multidisciplinary frontiers in biomedical science to facilitate the development of new treatments for liver-related cancer and other diseases.”

Current projects supported by the center include:

• Yan Li, associate professor in the Department of Surgery, is investigating preventive strategies and possible mechanisms behind non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, a potential precursor of liver cancer.
• Joshua L. Hood, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, is examining how very small membrane-bound compartments known as nanovesicles that are released by cancer cells influence immune function in liver cancer.
• Ming Song,��assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, is studying the role of fructose consumption on the disruption of intestinal barrier function in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
• Smita Ghare, instructor in the Department of Medicine, is investigating how alcohol-induced changes in the liver contribute to liver inflammation and injury.

UofL has a legacy of liver research dating to the 1970s when faculty members began investigating a cluster of cases of hepatic angiosarcoma, a rare liver cancer caused by exposure to vinyl chloride in a polymer manufacturing facility in an area of West Louisville known as Rubbertown. UofL researchers worked with the community and industry to document and reduce the effects of toxicants on worker health. UofL still maintains a biorepository of blood and liver tissue specimens begun during that research that serves as a resource for investigators studying the effects of environmental exposures on the liver.

In addition to research, the center provides support for community health. During the epidemic of Hepatitis A and C in the last decade, center investigators helped create the Kentucky Hepatitis Academic Mentorship Program. This program helped to train more than 140 primary care providers in the diagnosis and treatment of Hepatitis C. Those diseases now are declining.

Over the past decade, the laboratory has responded to national emergencies, studying highly infectious diseases such as SARS and others. Today it is being called upon in research efforts focusing on the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and the disease it causes, COVID-19. And in that lab, researchers are exploring compounds that hold promise as therapeutic agents against the disease and could be grown quickly in host tobacco plants.

That’s right, tobacco. A strain of the reviled plant that has caused fatal diseases for centuries could be the key to quickly mass-producing a preventive agent, treatment or vaccine for COVID-19.

“A protein in the university’s own proprietary portfolio and other compounds from industry sources may be useful against SARS-CoV-2,” said Kenneth Palmer, PhD, director of ���Ǵڳ�’s (CPM).�� “We are currently conducting laboratory research with these compounds that could eventually lead to a therapeutic agent against COVID-19.”

���Ǵڳ�’s (RBL) is housed in the CPM and is part of a network of 12 regional and two national labs that were established with support from the NIH to conduct research with infectious agents. The national labs are located at Boston University and at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Regional labs are located at the University of Chicago, Duke University, Boston University and other universities throughout the U.S. The RBL network stands ready in response to public health emergencies and emerging diseases such as the novel coronavirus.

The UofL RBL includes Biosafety Level 3 facilities built to the most exacting federal safety and security standards. The stringently secure facilities protect researchers and the public from exposure to the pathogens being investigated. As part of the RBL network, the UofL RBL is able to respond to needs of researchers, federal agencies and pharmaceutical companies nationwide to conduct research with infectious agents.

Palmer and his research team received samples of SARS-CoV-2 last month and are researching it only in the highly secure confines of the RBL. Covered head to toe in personal protective equipment to prevent self-infection, the researchers now are testing the therapeutic candidates against the disease in cell cultures.

The UofL compound is known as and is co-owned by the university with the National Cancer Institute and the University of Pittsburgh. It is a potent anti-viral protein that possesses microbicidal capabilities. The other compounds are proprietary to their respective companies.

The research goal is to identify the best potential treatment option that could eventually be tested in humans, first at UofL to gauge its safety and efficacy and then later at the University of Pittsburgh and other clinical trial sites to continue to test its effectiveness. Although there are no guarantees, “we believe we could move into human clinical trials by the end of the year,” Palmer said.

That’s where the tobacco plants come in. A large amount of the ultimate therapeutic will be needed for human trials. Kentucky’s historical cash crop is a perfect host to produce the quantities needed.

“The unique quality about studying these compounds in Kentucky is that we can rapidly scale up production of tobacco plants to produce the large amounts of the agent we will need for human testing,” Palmer said. “As people already know, tobacco grows very well in Kentucky.”

Some of the compounds are already showing promise in the laboratory. While the end of the year seems far off in the current coronavirus climate, it is realistic because “SARS-CoV-2 may be with us for a couple of winter seasons. We’d like to have a product that could be tested if the infection comes back in the cold season like influenza does,” Palmer said.

If it does, Palmer and his team will be ready. “We think we will be able to deliver the drug as a nasal spray and hope we can use it as a preventive, pre-exposure treatment before a vaccine could be developed. This will be important for the public and especially for those who are at risk because of their age or pre-existing health conditions or because they work in health care.”

.��

The four-year Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) grant from the National Institutes of Health will help fund a public-private consortium, the Kentucky Network for Innovation & Commercialization – KYNETIC. The new organization will use NIH funding to advance the most promising biomedical research innovations from the state’s eight public universities and the Kentucky Community & Technical College System. Ultimately, its goal is to create startups that commercialize the technologies for public benefit.

KYNETIC, whose founding members will contribute a $2.56 million direct-cost match, will provide guidance and technical resources to advance the technologies toward commercialization. Additionally, KYNETIC will assist in scaling the resulting startups to help tackle some of the biggest health challenges facing the US population, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.

Innovations that KYNETIC will help bring to market may be new pharmaceuticals, therapies, devices and other health-related technologies. Those products could directly intervene in disease processes and conditions individuals suffer, or they may address health disparities like lack of health care access in rural areas or populations suffering disproportionate rates of disease and premature death.

As resulting startups move into clinical trials phases, many will rely on the strength of Kentucky’s public hospitals and health care systems.

UofL President Neeli Bendapudi said the expanding resources available through UofL Health will further support health care research.

“With the acquisition of Jewish Hospital and other KentuckyOne Health properties, researchers at UofL will have additional opportunities to recruit patients for clinical studies to advance research emerging from KYNETIC,” Bendapudi said. “Projects developed through KYNETIC will have the potential to further existing UofL research efforts in optimal aging, improve access to quality health care in underserved urban and rural regions, and bolster efforts to both attract and retain top faculty and students at UofL.”

In addition to its statewide approach, KYNETIC will intentionally seek both innovations and entrepreneurs from diverse and underrepresented groups.

Paula Bates, PhD, professor of medicine at UofL and co-principal investigator on the grant, said the state will benefit from broader collaborations facilitated by KYNETIC.

“When you get people from different backgrounds working together, you see innovation blossom,” Bates said. “I am looking forward to seeing some new collaborations, being able to share what we have learned and learn from other people in Kentucky. I think this is a really powerful way to reach everybody in Kentucky and get some great knowledge transferred and some great new ideas.”

Linda Dwoskin, PhD, UK professor of pharmaceutical sciences and co-principal investigator on the grant, said KYNETIC will benefit researchers, institutions and communities across Kentucky including underserved communities and populations.

“It is an honor to work with the University of Louisville, C3 and public academic institutions across the state to advance and accelerate innovative ideas that could lead to new products and technologies,” Dwoskin said. “Throughout the state we have untapped resources of inventive and entrepreneurial individuals and groups whom we hope to provide opportunities that will aid in transforming ideas and discoveries to tangible health benefits.”

“Kentucky’s ability to win this grant — one of only a handful ever awarded nationwide — was made possible in large part because of the unprecedented collaboration between our economic development cabinet, public universities and technical colleges in creating our non-profit commercialization center, C3,” said Governor Matt Bevin. “This grant further validates the significance of C3’s public-private structure and our decision to revitalize Kentucky’s innovation and entrepreneurial support system. Together, we can have a truly positive impact on the health of Kentuckians and people around the world.”

KYNETIC will leverage commercialization resources led by co-investigators Allen Morris, PhD, executive director of the UofL Commercialization EPI-Center, Ian McClure, executive director of the UK Office of Technology Commercialization, and April Turley director of C3’s Commercialization Core. It also will build on the experience brought by a current REACH hub at UofL () and other existing tech-transfer programs at UofL, as well as the regional IDeA biomedical technology transfer accelerator hub at UK��

Check out more in the video below:��

In mice models with genetic mutations similar to humans with night blindness, scientists used adeno-associated viruses to reintroduce the protein into cells in the retina, the specialized tissue at the back of the eye that detects light and triggers impulses through the optic nerve to the brain, where a visual image is formed.

The research, led by scientists at the University of Louisville with collaborators from the Medical College of Wisconsin, recently was published by . Grants from the National Institutes of Health, Research to Prevent Blindness and the Foundation Fighting Blindness funded the research.

“Individual genes that everybody expresses are critical to making sure vision works correctly, and in their absence, some people will have night blindness,” said Ron Gregg, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the UofL School of Medicine. “Our research shows that if you replace the missing protein using a gene therapy approach, you can restore visual function.”

Humans are adept at seeing in low light, but genetic mutations can disrupt that function, causing total night blindness.��

Proteins located on the surface of photoreceptors, which are cells in the retina that detect light, ensure that visual signals pass from the two types of photoreceptors – cones and rods – to retinal bipolar cells. This is a crucial step in the transmission of visual information from the eyes to the brain. Genetic mutations disrupt the signal transfer between photoreceptors and retinal bipolar cells, impairing vision.

People with congenital stationary night blindness also have other vision problems, including severe myopia, involuntary eye movements and eyes that do not look in the same direction. These secondary affects are more debilitating than night blindness itself, Gregg said.

The next phase of research requires testing on a large animal model with eyes similar to humans.