MCB People in the News

September 23, 2009 — Chair of Biochemistry wins William R. Willard Award

September 23, 2009 – Lous B. Hersh (Chair of Biochemistry) was awarded William R. Willard Dean’s Recognition Award at the Academic Convocation and Awards Day ceremony. This Recognition Award is given to a UKMC faculty member to honor contributions, achievements, and service over an extended period.

September 23, 2009 — Dr. Turco awarded Silver Pointer Award

Dr. Sam Turco was awarded the 2008-2009 Silver Pointer Award by the Class of 2012 medical students as the best teacher in the first year. This is the 12th time Dr. Turco has been honored with this prestigious award.

June 2, 2009 — Dr LeVine Recieves Prestigious CART Award

The CART fund is intended to encourage exploratory and developmental Alzheimer’s disease research projects within the United States by providing support for the early and conceptual plans of those projects that may not yet be supported by extensive preliminary data but have the potential to substantially advance biomedical research.
Full article can be found here: Cart Award

February 5, 2009 — Dr. Stamm appointed to the Jacqueline A. Noonan, M.D. Professorship in Pediatrics

The award was given in recognition for Dr. Stamm's prader-willi research. In attendance were Chair of Biochemistry Louis Hersh, Tim Bricker, Dean of the College of Medicine Jay Perman, Dr. Jacqueline Noonan, and Dr. Stefan Stamm
Shown left to right: Award Picture

January 17, 2009 — BCH Students very productive in 2008

In 2008, Biochemistry Graduate students were authors on 18 peer-reviewed research papers and made 43 scientific presentations on their work. We are very proud of our students for this high level of productivity.

November 11, 2008 — BCH Wins Teaching Award

The Department of Biochemistry was honored with the 2007-2008 Golden Podium Award which is awarded by the medical students as the best teaching department in the first year. Teaching faculty involved are Sam Turco (Course director), Kevin Sarge, Michael Fried, Peter Spielmann, and David Watt.

November 11, 2008 — Dr Turco Wins Teaching Award

Dr. Sam Turco was awarded the 2007-2008 Silver Pointer Award by the medical students as the best teacher in the first year. This is the eleventh time Dr. Turco has been honored with this prestigious award.

October 28, 2008 — Sarge lab has paper in Nature Cell Biology

The Sarge lab has a paper that will appear in the November issue of Nature Cell Biology that shows that the basal transcription factor TATA-binding protein (TBP) plays an important role in gene bookmarking, the process by which the memory of active gene expression patterns is maintained during mitosis so that it can be transmitted to daughter cells.  Most of the experiments were done by Hongyan Xing, a Research Associate in the lab.  Nathan Vanderford, who went on to get a Ph.D. from the Ozcan lab, contributed some data obtained during his rotation in the Sarge lab.  Click here to read the article.

October 22, 2008 — Dr. Vander Kooi Paper Editor-Selected

University of Kentucky's Dr. Vander Kooi published papers in ACS Publications are part of the Editor-Selected Papers in Biophysics. Click here to read the article.

October 21, 2008 — BCH Students Publish 20 Papers in 2007

University of Kentucky BCH students are active in 2007, publishing papers and providing quality presentations of their works. Click here to read the productivity report.

August 8, 2008 — Dr Haining Zhu receives Maciag Award

University of Kentucky associate professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry, Haining Zhu, has been named the recipient of the prestigious Maciag Award from the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Research Resources. Zhu received this honor in recognition of his many research accomplishments and for his exceptional ability to mentor young scientists.  Click here to read the article at University of Kentucky News.

December 14, 2007 — Postdoctoral Poster Session Award Winners

Congratulations to Shivendra Kishore in the Stamm lab (Second Place) and Jozsef Gal in the Zhu lab (Honorable Mention) in the College of Medicine Postdoc Poster session.

December 12, 2007 — The Faces of Research:  Jamie Cantrell

The interesting research project of Jamie Cantrell, a Biochemistry student, is featured in an article in the latest Dean’s newsletter.  Jamie is a student in Dr Sabire Ozcan’s laboratory.   Also of note is that this nice article was written by Rachel Ahmed, a student in Dr Paul Murphy’s lab.  Click here to read the article.

December 2, 2007 — JBC Paper of the Week

The Sarge Lab's paper titled "HSF1-Tpr interaction facilitates export of stress-induced hsp70 mRNA" has been chosen as Paper of the Week in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

November 12, 2007 — Gill Heart Institute Cardiovascular Research Day Award

Nathan Correll in the Andres Laboratory was awarded second place for the best student presentation at the Gill Heart Institute Cardiovascular Research Day, which was held on October 19, 2007.

May 31, 2007 — Predoctoral Fellowships

Megan Sampley, Steve Smith, and Nathan Vanderford have been awarded predoctoral fellowships from the American Heart Association.  Megan and Nathan are students in the lab of Dr Sabire Ozcan, and Steve is a student in the lab of Dr Dan Noonan.

May 31, 2007 — Zhu Lab Paper Recognized

A recent paper on studies from Haining Zhu's laboratory into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, was recognized on the main UK web site.  Click here to read the article at University of Kentucky News.

March 21, 2007 — Dr Becky Dutch Nominated for the Sarah Bennett Holmes Award

"Recognizing Remarkable Women at the University of Kentucky" -
Dr Rebecca E Dutch serves the University of Kentucky as Associate Professor in the Department of  Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry.   In a discipline dominated by men, Dr Dutch leads a lab of nine women, inspiring her seven female students and one female research assistant to develop the knowledge, experience, skill and confidence required for making independent research decisions and backing up those decisions when questioned.   Dr Dutch encourages critical thinking as she guides research projects, scientific writing, and instructs her students in effective public speaking, all essential skills required for professional success, obtaining independent funding, fellowships, and presenting research at meetings and professional conferences...  Click here to read more.

March 6, 2007 — Biochemistry Student Wins Presidential Fellowship

Chunxia Zhao, a student in Dr Wally Whiteheart's laboratory, has been awarded a Presidential Fellowship from the University of Kentucky for the 2007-2008 academic year.

October 5-7, 2006 — Biochemistry Student Wins Award at the 11th Biennial Midwest Platelet Conference

Congratulations are due to Megan Sampley for winning fourth place in the student competition for the Gill Heart Institute Cardiovascular Research Day.  In addition, according to Dr Carole Moncman, there were numerous works from both our graduate students and post-docs that were scored favorably in this competition, so we would like to acknowledge all of these individuals that participated.  The Gill Heart Institute Cardiovascular Research Day is an event for UK that is growing each year and provides students, fellows and staff the opportunity to discuss their work in a scholarly fashion with other researchers.

September 29, 2006 — Biochemistry Rises to 12th in the Nation as Ranked by NIH

The Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry rose in NIH rankings of public medical schools  from 28th in 2000 to 12th in 2005.  In terms of all medical schools we've climbed from 54th to 26th.

July 19, 2006 — Dr Kevin Sarge receives the 2006 Clinical and Translational Science Mentor Award

May 25, 2006 — Four Biochemistry Students Receive AHA Predoctoral Awards

Jennifer Rudolph, Wangsun Choi, Jason Ren, and Richard Singiser have been awarded Predoctoral Awards from the American Heart Association.  These awards, which will begin July 1, carry a stipend of $20,000 per year and provide two years of support.  We are very proud of these students as well as all our other students who are putting forth effort to seek predoctoral support from this and other sources.

April 1, 2006 — Biochemistry Professor wins Great Teacher Award

Dr Wally Whiteheart, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, has received a Great Teacher Award for excellence in the classroom.  This prestigious award, only six of which were given by the University of Kentucky this year, is based on nominations from students.  It has been awarded yearly since 1961, making it the oldest continuous honor bestowed by UK for teaching excellence.  We congratulate Dr Whiteheart for his outstanding contribution to quality teaching here at UK.

The complete News Release can be found here.

December 9, 2005 — Review featured as cover article

A review authored by Biochemistry faculty Dr Kevin Sarge and Physiology faculty member Dr Ok-Kyong Park-Sarge was featured as the cover article for the November issue of Trends in Biochemical Sciences, a top-ranked review journal in the biomedical sciences.

The article is: Sarge, KD, Park-Sarge OK.  (2005)  Gene bookmarking: keeping the pages open. Trends Biochem. Sci. 30: 605-610. 

Click here to see cover image.

May 18, 2005 — Biochemistry Chair Appointed Senior Associate Dean for Basic Science Affairs

Congratulations to Dr Louis B Hersh, Chair for the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, for being appointed Senior Associate Dean for Basic Science Affairs in the College of Medicine.  This newly created office advises the Dean and works collegially with Senior Associate Deans for Research and Education on matters of academic affairs and operations relating to the basic science departments.  Dr Hersh has served as Chair for the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry for 13 years and has been a guiding force in the development of the department.

May 17, 2005 — Christina Hines awarded Medical Student Research Award

Biochemistry MD/PhD graduate Christina Hines was presented the Medical Student Research Award by Dr Louis Hersh (Chair) this past Saturday at the UK Medical School Senior Awards Brunch.  The Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry is very proud of Christina and her accomplishments and wishes her the best of luck throughout her medical career.

May 17, 2005 — Biochemistry Article selected as Research Highlight by Advanced Photon Source

A recent biochemistry article, titled:  Enzyme Mutations And Motor Disorders, was selected as a research highlight by the annual publication of the Advanced Photon Source.   The paper stems from work performed by Yiying (Crystal) Cai as part of her thesis research.

See:  Y Cai, CN Cronin, AG Engel, K Ohno, LB Hersh, DW Rodgers.  "Choline Acetyltransferase Structure Reveals Distribution of Mutations that Cause Motor Disorders."  EMBO J 23, 2047 (2004)

May 11, 2005 — Biochemistry Researcher Wins Kirwan Prize

University of Kentucky biochemistry professor Louis Barry Hersh today received the Albert D and Elizabeth H Kirwan Memorial Prize at the university’s 138th commencement.

The annual award, which includes a $5,000 prize, recognizes a full-time UK faculty member for outstanding contributions to original research or creative scholarship. It is named in honor of Albert D Kirwan, president of UK from 1968 to 1970, and his wife, Elizabeth, and was established by their sons.

Hersh, who chairs the UK Department of Biochemistry and is director of the Kentucky Center for Structural Biology, was recognized for research that attracted $3 million from outside grant agencies in 2004 alone. His recent work focuses on decreasing the accumulation in the brain of the neurotoxin amyloid beta peptide, believed to be a causative agent of Alzheimer’s disease. He has identified two enzymes that degrade the amyloid beta peptide.

In the last four years, Hersh has produced 39 articles in scientific journals such as Life Science, Molecular and Cellular Biology and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He was elected president in 2003 of the Association of Medical and Graduate Departments of Biochemistry, and serves on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals.

April 18, 2005 — 2nd year MCB Students Present at ASBMB Meeting

2nd year MCB students Mary Bosserman, Nick Noinaj, Megan Sampley, Rachel Schowalter, Melanie Silver, Rich Singiser, Chiranthani Sumanesekera, and Nathan Vanderford presented their research data at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology that was held April 2-6 in San Diego.  Every year the department sends all 2nd year students to the ASBMB meeting, which next year will be in San Francisco, because it provides them an excellent opportunity to improve their research presentation skills, learn about the work of other scientists, and make professional connections that can be very valuable for their future career success.  Click here for photos from this year's trip.

April 1, 2005 — 2 Biochemistry Students Awarded UK Academic Excellence In-State Scholarships

The department would like to congratulate two of our graduate students, Rachel Schowalter and Nathan Vanderford, who have been awarded UK's Academic Excellence In-State Tuition Scholarship.

November 8, 2004 — Large Increase in MCB Grant Funding

Over 11 million dollars in total grant funding was obtained by researchers in the department for the period July 2003 to June 2004, a 40% increase over the level for the previous year.  NIH grant dollars rose from $4.7 million in fiscal year 2003 to over $8.3 million in fiscal year 2004.

October 27, 2004 — Biochemistry Student Wins 2nd Place for Poster at Gill Heart Institutes Cardiovascular Research Day

Biochemistry student Lisa Kelly Senetar was awarded second place for her poster at the Gill Heart Institute's Cardiovascular Research Day yesterday.  She competed against over 60 students from throughout the University for this honor.

October 8, 2004 — Dean Congratulates 2 Biochemistry Students for Outstanding 1st Year Performance

Nathan Vanderford and Rachel Schowalter received high praise from Dr David Watt, Executive Dean for the UK College of Medicine, for earning a GPA of 4.0 during their 1st year in the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Program.

This is a demanding curriculum, both in terms of the amount and level of prescribed coursework and in terms of juggling coursework and bench research during rotations.  You have performed at a consistently high level throughout this challenging year.
—Dr Watt

Rachel and Nathan were 5 out of 35 students from their IBS class who achieved a "straight A" average.  Rachel is now a student in Becky Dutch's laboratory, and Nathan is in Dr Sabire Ozcan's laboratory.

September 1, 2004 — 2 Biochemistry Students Make all-star Rugby Team

4 Rugby Players Make all-star team (taken from The Lexington Herald Leader):

Four members of the Lexington Moths Women's Rugby Club have been selected for the Ohio Rugby Union All-Star Team.  Mary Bosserman (Biochemistry), Sarah Martin, Natalie Mickelsen and Rachel Schowalter (Biochemistry) represented local rugby at the Midwest Rugby Tournament in Chicago last weekend.  The tournament brought together the best women players of the Ohio Union, pitting them against all-star teams from other unions, including Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa.  The Lexington Moths are members of the Ohio Rugby Union and regularly play against clubs in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Tennessee.

The Moths have started practice for the new season, and new players are welcome.  No age limit or experience is necessary.  For more information, contact Sarah Martin at (859) 913-4599 or email mothrugby@yahoo.com.

August 6, 2004 — Biochemistry student received NIH predoctoral award

Willie Craft, a student in Dr Becky Dutch's laboratory, received an NIH predoctoral award.  Click here to read more.

June 30, 2004 — Five Biochemistry students win American Heart Association predoctoral awards

Click here to read about their awards.