The three-year grant will allow the coordination and expansion of existing efforts to improve stroke-related health outcomes. Kentucky health care systems and community providers will work together to implement comprehensive stroke systems for those at high risk for stroke and those who have had a stroke. 

“This program will allow expansion of our statewide efforts to serve rural and underserved citizens of the Commonwealth, to reduce disparities and monitor our progress,” said Kerri S. Remmel, chair of the , director of and co-chair of the KHDSP Task Force. “The program will facilitate continuous quality improvement in the full continuum of care from the moment a patient has a stroke through their emergency services, hospitalization and rehabilitation to their outpatient preventive care. We are extremely enthusiastic about collaborating with our partners in the Coverdell Program to improve stroke systems of care in Kentucky.”

“This award validates the voluntary efforts of stroke center personnel, EMS representatives, community partners, KHDSP staff and colleagues in public health, as well as all other stakeholders who have worked tirelessly across geopolitical boundaries in a collaborative effort to advance stroke systems of care in our state,” said Kari Moore, chair of the  (SEQIP) and project co-investigator. “We are excited to continue to build upon these efforts supported by the Coverdell award.”

KHDSP and SEQIP have made significant strides over the last 10 years improving stroke systems of care in the Commonwealth and growing access to stroke care by increasing the number of certified stroke centers in the state, increasing delivery of acute stroke treatments that can reverse or minimize stroke deficits and sharing best practices to help facilitate care delivery during hospitalization and after discharge.

This grant will coordinate and expand existing efforts in Kentucky to improve stroke-related health outcomes by working with Kentucky health care systems and community providers to implement comprehensive stroke systems for those at high risk for stroke and those who have had a stroke. 

The Coverdell award also will allow the group to target areas of the Commonwealth that are disproportionately affected by stroke, such as the Appalachian counties. The mortality rate due to stroke in that region is 14% higher than the national average and 8% higher than the rest of the state.

“This award could not come at a better time, because Kentucky has among the highest rates of stroke-related deaths in the country,” said , chairman of the  and principal investigator on the project. “Over 2,000 Kentuckians die from stroke or stroke-related complications each year. Health behaviors and conditions that contribute to stroke are present at high rates in Kentucky with contributions from smoking, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, excessive alcohol use and physical inactivity. Although there are several existing stroke programs in Kentucky, we are excited that this project will coordinate and expand upon these efforts to improve stroke outcomes for Kentuckians.”

As part of the Coverdell initiative, the Kentucky Stroke Improvement Cooperative (KSIC) will be created to provide leadership for improving the quality of stroke care in the Commonwealth. Building from the KHDSP Taskforce and SEQIP, the UK and UofL Stroke Programs and the SCN, this group will lead the collaborative effort to transform Kentucky’s stroke care and outcomes by improving health approaches and practices.

Since its inception in 2005, The Coverdell Program has funded programs to ensure that all Americans receive the highest quality stroke care, a leading cause of death and long-term disability, by supporting coordinated stroke systems of care.

Joining nine other states currently funded by the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Program, Kentucky’s program will:

• Increase access and participation in the statewide Kentucky Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Task Force from the current 38 hospitals to help close the gap in stroke care for high burden populations. In addition to focusing on hospitals, the project will expand participation to encompass the community, primary care clinics, EMS, rehabilitation centers and long-term care facilities.
• Expand coordination between existing programs including the Kentucky SEQIP, the statewide UK/Norton Healthcare Stroke Care Network, and the 36 certified stroke centers in Kentucky.
• Increase access, understanding, utilization, and compliance with evidence-based performance measures of the .
• Expand existing systems of care to coordinate and extend access to rural and underserved populations.
• Increase the dissemination of evidence-based guidelines for improvement of hypertension, obesity and diabetes control, which are the leading risk factors for stroke disproportionately affecting high-burden populations.
• Reduce stroke disparities and deaths over the long term and improve outcomes throughout Kentucky with a focus on Appalachia and underserved communities at highest risk.

The 20 students participated in the Kentucky-Princeton Undergraduate Summer Institute on Inequality, sponsored by the Princeton University Center for Human Values. Through academic study, field study and service learning, the participants explored various theories of what inequality is and why it matters and examined how inequality affects people across sectors of society and aspects of their lives such as housing, justice and health.

Carmen Mitchell, a UofL School of Public Health and Information Sciences doctoral student, helped with the institute, serving as a local resource and residing with the group in Kurz Hall. She was impressed by the conversations, listening to “the participants connecting what they are learning with their own experiences. That’s one of the best parts, actually – them getting to interact freely, not being graded, building relationships and friendships as well.”

Mitchell also presented to the group on her focus area of health policy, particularly in health disparities. In giving a public health overview, she wanted to identify some of the barriers such as provider access, rural care and a history of racism and sexism. “It’s very complicated.”

“More than memorizing facts, I want the students to have a framework for how to talk about the issues,” Mitchell said.

After morning seminars in the Overseers House on Belknap Campus, the students ventured out to various sites in Louisville, including Churchill Downs and the Backside Learning Center, an environmental justice tour, a meeting with the mayor and a civil rights history driving tour developed by UofL’s Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research. Central Kentucky tours took them to a Pathways Inc. health clinic, a horse farm and a distillery. Capping off the week was a Saturday service learning project to participate in New Directions Housing Corp.’s Repair Affair on a Louisville house.

Micah Castanon, a UofL philosophy and sociology major and Pan-African studies minor, was looking forward to the hands-on nature of the service project after the week of an institute he described as “really good and super relevant.”

The Glasgow student was interested in the experience because of “the prospect of gathering practical learning of equality and inequality – who it affects – and being able to carry it away from here and implement it in actions and everyday decisions.”

UofL philosophy professor Avery Kolers and Anna Stilz, Princeton professor of politics with the University Center for Human Values, coordinated the institute. Additional faculty participants were from several UofL departments as well as Western Kentucky University, Eastern Kentucky University and University of Kentucky. The faculty volunteered their time, and the students had an all-expenses-paid educational experience.

In October, the students will go to Princeton for a weekend to learn from faculty presenters there and to work on op-ed writing projects together, as well as visit Trenton, New Jersey, Stilz said.

The institute “brings a lot of depth” to an academic experience, she said. “It adds a lot to your understanding. The students are fantastic.”

The summer institute was the first of its kind; organizers plan to gauge its impact and possibly offer future seminars, varying the topics annually to look at other questions about values in public life.

Under the agreement, the Justice Cabinet will contract with the universities for forensic pathology services, combining resources for both autopsies and medical education. The move is expected to boost salaries for doctors, helping improve recruitment and retention, and it will help the cabinet avoid charging counties a fee for autopsies.

“The opioid crisis has placed tremendous strains on our state, and we must take every opportunity to innovate and find efficiencies,” Secretary Tilley said. “By partnering with universities, we can improve the pay and size of our forensics team while also ensuring that families, coroners and police get the answers they need when tragedy strikes.”

The agreement also will help UK and UofL maximize training opportunities for medical students and residents in pathology.

“Our collaboration with the Justice Cabinet and their Medical Examiner’s Office illustrates the University of Kentucky’s desire to take a comprehensive, ‘all hands on deck’ approach to addressing Kentucky’s opioid crisis,” said Dr. Darrell Jennings, chair of the UK Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. “This opportunity will provide our medical students in Lexington, Bowling Green and Northern Kentucky, along with our residents and fellows, with unparalleled training on the front lines, harnessing the power of compassion and commitment to transform the future.”

“Through this strengthened relationship with the state Medical Examiner’s Office, we will broaden the educational and training opportunities for our students, residents and fellows,” said Dr. Eyas Hattab, chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Sciences at UofL. “Our trainees will have access to the number and variety of cases that are invaluable as they prepare for the next steps in their careers.”

UofL will provide up to six pathologists in state medical examiner offices; UK will provide up to four. The cabinet will pay the universities for any services performed by these doctors on a scale similar to current costs. The cabinet and universities will also collaborate on strategies that could possibly lower the overall cost of the program in the long run.

The Medical Examiner’s Office currently employs nine doctors – six in Louisville, two in Frankfort and one in Madisonville. The partnership is expected to provide a net increase of one forensic pathologist immediately with opportunities to add an additional doctor, possibly within two years, thanks to recruitment assistance from the universities.

All doctors have an opportunity to transition into university positions, and those who do are expected to receive a salary increase depending on the individual contracts between doctors and universities. Added salary will compensate for additional responsibilities such as teaching, researching, writing, consulting or other contributions that doctors are interested in pursuing.

While the exact terms of employment will depend on the individual contracts, the higher pay scale is expected to make Kentucky more effective at hiring and keeping new doctors.
Kentucky, like many other states, has struggled to recruit forensic pathologists in recent years due to a national shortage. Only about 500 forensic doctors are currently practicing across the country. At the same time, overdose deaths have continued to climb over the past decade, driving up demand for autopsies and toxicology tests. More than 1,400 Kentuckians died from an overdose in 2016.

In response, enhancing the Medical Examiners’ Office has remained a high priority under the current administration.

In 2016, the office resumed services in Madisonville (following a two-year hiatus), helping coroners and law enforcement agencies across Western Kentucky reduce travel costs and obtain evidence at a faster pace.

Secretary Tilley said he plans to continue looking for ways to improve the office. For instance, the cabinet is aggressively seeking grant funds to expand capacity, reduce caseloads, expand toxicology analysis and enhance data collection.

“We want to consider every option to enhance services while avoiding fees for counties,” he said. “UK and UofL have been excellent partners in this process, and we look forward to continuing our work with coroners to ensure their needs are met.”

Those are just the tip of the iceberg of possible outcomes of work being done at the University of Louisville’s Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, where on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 students and staff harvested “energy crops” planted near the .

2017 marked the second year that hemp and kenaf, an African fiber plant, were planted near Phoenix House, the Conn Center’s solar-powered administrative office building. The plants were an unusual site along the Eastern Parkway overpass, where they were sown in May and were the background of many a selfie.

The plants, both highly suitable to Kentucky’s growing conditions, are part of the Conn Center’s research into biofuels and biomass conversions. The UofL crop was one of eight at Kentucky colleges and universities grown as part of the state’s pilot program into field-scale industrial hemp, but the only one that will be used for energy research.

Industrial hemp is a variety of Cannabis sativa and is of the same plant species of marijuana. However it doesn’t contain high levels of THC, the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana that causes the marijuana high. Both hemp and marijuana are classified as Schedule 1 drugs under the Controlled Substances Act, and are illegal to produce in the United States.

In Kentucky, only those who are part of a Department of Agriculture research program into field-scale industrial hemp production may grow hemp. More than 3,200 acres of industrial hemp was grown in Kentucky in 2017, the department said.

The UofL crop expanded this year to a total area of just over one tenth of an acre, said Andrew Marsh, assistant director of the Conn Center.

Marsh planted the seeds in three plantings beginning in May. He had help from groundskeepers from Physical Plant and researchers from the University of Kentucky’s industrial hemp program.

After cutting down the plants, Marsh and students bundled and transported them to the Conn Center’s Science & Innovation Garage for Manufacturing Advancement, where they will dry.

“Once dried, the Conn Center’s Biofuels & Biomass Conversion group, led by Jagannadh Satyavolu, and faculty from chemical engineering, such as Noppadon Sathitsuksanoh, will work with the biomass,” Marsh said.  

Marsh said the center plans to expand the crop in 2018 and hopes to improve soil quality to ensure the plants do well in their urban environment.

“In 2016 and 2017, the tendencies of different seed types to prosper in our climate and soil conditions over those that do not have become apparent,” Marsh said. “So far, we have been growing in unconditioned ‘urban clay,’ not farm soils. This year gave a better look at the nutrient deficiencies, so 2018 will include soil-conditioning strategies. There are hemp varieties that we grew that just didn’t do very well with our mix of soil, available nutrient and water, but others did great. We’ll be diversifying our seed types next year too, looking for greater yield with minimal soil modifications. This was our first full season of growing, and the results are pretty good for both kenaf and hemp.”            

The state’s hemp research program is looking into whether hemp can once again become an economic driver in the state, where it was once grown primarily for making rope.

Satyavolu, the center’s leader for biofuels and biomass conversion, along with assistant chemical engineering professor Sathitsuksanoh and students, are studying whether hurd, the innor core of the hemp plant stem, has potential for use in fuels, chemicals and polymers. Hurd is a byproduct after the outer fibers of the hemp are removed.

About the Conn Center’s research

The Conn Center research is specifically focused on

1. Converting hemp into high value, functionalized carbons that can be used as catalyst supports and energy storage media
2. Transforming hemp seed oil into biocompatible resins for 3-D printed medical implants
3. Extracting sugars from hemp to convert into diesel additives and other chemicals.

In collaboration with the state, UofL established the Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research at the in 2009. The center leads research that increases homegrown energy sources to meet the national need while reducing energy consumption and dependence on foreign oil. The center promotes partnerships among Kentucky’s colleges and universities, private industries and non-profit organizations to actively pursue federally and privately funded R&D resources dedicated to renewable energy solutions.

Researchers at the Conn Center are studying advanced energy materials manufacturing; solar energy conversion; renewable energy storage; biofuels/biomass conversions; and energy efficiency and conservation.

Mahendra Sunkara is director of the center, named in honor of Henry “Hank” and Rebecca Conn, who pledged $20 million for its formation. Hank Conn is a UofL alumnus who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the Speed School and also an MBA from the College of Business.

Check out more about this year’s harvesting process in the video below: 

But beyond the gridiron, there are numerous examples of the University of Louisville working with the University of Kentucky in research that holds promise to improve life not only for Kentuckians but for people throughout the United States and around the world.

Currently, there are 20 projects funded at a total of almost $11 million in this year alone that involve collaboration between the two universities. Agencies funding these projects include the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, NASA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Transportation, the United States Geological Survey, several state agencies and more. Researchers in medicine, engineering, psychology, physics, education and the geosciences are working together to advance the body of knowledge in their fields and subfields.

“On the playing field, we are fierce competitors, but in the laboratory, we work together to bring new solutions to questions that plague our state, nation and world,” said UofL Acting President Neville Pinto, PhD. “As researchers and academicians, we put athletic rivalry aside and collaborate in research and development across a wide spectrum.”

The scope of collaboration being carried out covers a wide range of fields, from providing primary health care services and training future physicians through Area Health ����ֱ�� Centers across the Commonwealth to development of a paradigm-shifting therapy for humans exposed to radiation.

Other joint research is examining ways to power the Kentucky bioeconomy for a sustainable future; studying systems biochemistry with the goal of achieving a mechanistic understanding of non-small cell lung cancer; developing better ways to predict deterioration of asphalt and asphalt-overlaid concrete pavement roadways throughout the state; modeling urban watershed runoff in storm events; and more.

One example of UofL-UK collaboration is the Kentucky Multi-scale Manufacture and Nano Integration Node (KY MMNIN), one of just 16 academic sites across the United States that make up the prestigious National Nanotechnology Coordinate Infrastructure network funded by the National Science Foundation. This 10-year project funded at a total of $7 million leverages more than 25 years of expertise in the fields of micro- and nano-fabrication and three-dimensional additive manufacture, otherwise known as “3-D printing.”

The project’s principal investigator is Kevin Walsh, PhD, UofL , and Associate Dean for Research in the J.B. Speed School of Engineering. Walsh also is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

The goal of the MMNIN project is to bring 3-D additive manufacturing and micro/nanotechnology to the invention and creative marketplace.

“The next generation of revolutionary products and solutions will require the combination and effective integration of a diverse set of 3-D manufacturing processes spanning various lengthscales ranging from nanotechnology to 3-D printing,” Walsh said. “Users want easy access to these resources and expertise to rapidly and efficiently fabricate their creative ideas.”

With both standard fabrication and 3-D additive processes, the KY MMNIN initiative provides users with unconventional and nationally unique tools to realize their inventions, Walsh said.

One such user is a part-time lecturer in the Speed School and President/CEO of MEMStim LLC. Johnson’s company is developing ways to improve and lower the cost of cochlear implants for people who are deaf.

Johnson’s Louisville-based start-up uses advanced manufacturing to fabricate cochlear implants in the Cardinal cleanroom, a controlled manufacturing facility that is one of the eight facilities of the KY MMNIN.

The complex circuitry in cochlear implants currently must be manufactured by hand, leading to higher costs. Johnson believes that if she can improve the manufacturing process, she could then lower the cost of cochlear implants and allow more people in need of implants to afford them.

Johnson is using a machine-driven process to reduce the need for costly handmade manufacturing of implant circuitry. Using the diverse toolset of the KY MMNIN cleanroom, Johnson can design different features on the electrode arrays needed for cochlear implants. Her process has never been done before in the manufacture of these types of devices. Her circuitry for cochlear implants is still in the testing phase with the goal of one day achieving FDA approval for use in humans.

“Being able to improve the technology is my motivation to improve the quality of life for patients,” she said.

Currently, more than 40 percent of published studies in leading journals are collaborative in nature. Research funding favors collaboration as well; both government agencies and private foundations have increasingly structured requests for proposals to favor collaboration.