Welcome
For more than a decade the MD/PhD Program at the University of Kentucky has provided rigorous education and training to prepare men and women for careers as independent physician-scientists and leaders in academic medicine.
As you will learn in the pages that follow, we have a talented group of students who are distinguished by their dedication to becoming preeminent clinical investigators. Currently, over 80% of our graduates remain in academic medicine. You can read more about some of the accomplishments of our students below and on the Publications and Honors and Awards pages.
As one of only a handful of universities to have six health science colleges on the same medical campus and to be physically contiguous with the main campus, we offer a broad array of graduate training opportunities. In addition to traditional biomedical graduate training in the Anatomy/Neurobiology, Biochemistry, Immunology/Microbiology/Molecular Genetics, Pharmacology, Physiology, Toxicology, and Nutritional Sciences (College of Medicine), we also offer training in Biomedical Engineering (The Graduate School), Pharmaceutical Sciences (College of Pharmacy), and Gerontology (College of Public Health). Graduate PhD training in Epidemiology and Biostatistics (College of Public Health) opened to enrollment in 2009 and Clinical and Translational Science (College of Medicine) in 2010.
Exchange between investigators in different academic disciplines is facilitated by strong multi-disciplinary research Centers. Our particular strengths are in:
For a complete list of Research Centers, Core Facilities & Research Resources at the University of Kentucky, go here.
We hope that this website conveys to you our excitement for training the very best clinician scientists. We encourage you to take advantage of the information presented by this site, and to learn more about our program by contacting individuals listed under the Contact Us page. We look forward to talking with you about our program!
Program Announcements:
Graduating seniors receive honors:
Nirmal Ravi, MD PhD, was honored with the Dr. Richard W. Emerine Memorial Award
James Butler, MD PhD, was named the Myron G. Sandifer Jr MD Award as outstanding student in Psychiatry
Romulo Albuquerque MD PhD and James Butler MD PhD were co-recipients of the Medical Student Research Award
Romulo Albuquerque MD PhD was named to the Gold Humanism Honor Society
Our Student Panel Discussion held on Wednesday, April 13th, was a HUGE Success. Our Panel consisted of 4 soon-to-be graduating MD/PhD students and a Panel moderator. We had a great turn-out which strengthens support for our MD/PhD program. (The audio of the Panel Discussion is available if anyone is interested in hearing the question and answer session for review). Thanks to everyone for their participation in making the 1st Annual Student Panel Discussion the success that it was. Special recognition to our Student Panel: Michelle Stephens, Nirmal Ravi, James Butler and Romulo Albuquerque. Lastly, to Dr. John D'Orazio our Panel Moderator without whom the event would never have evolved in the first place, a hearty Thank You!
Ailing Ji, Jason M. Meyer, Lei Cai, Akinwunmi Akinmusire, Maria C. de Beer, Nancy R. Webb, Deneys R. van der Westhuyzen. Scavenger receptor SR-BI in macrophage lipid metabolism. Atherosclerosis, in press.
Scott R. Silva, Yekaterina Y. Zaytseva, Lindsey N. Jackson, Eun Y. Lee, Heidi L. Weiss, Kanika A. Bowen, Courtney M. Townsend, Jr., B. Mark Evers. THE EFFECT OF PTEN ON SEROTONIN SYNTHESIS AND SECRETION FROM THE CARCINOID CELL LINE BON. Anticancer Research, in press.
Congratulations!! Lisa & Romulo Albuquerque announce the birth of Benicio Garcia Albuquerque who was born on 3/30/2011. Benicio arrived into the world weighing in at 6lb12.8oz and measured 19 3/4 inches. Mom and baby are doing great.
Caitlin Latimer-Shannon has been selected by The Endocrine Society to receive a 2011 Endocrine Trainee Day Travel Award which is an application-based opportunity offered to the brightest medical and graduate students. The convention will be held June 4-7, 2011 in Boston, MA.
The opportunity will allow Caitlin and her mentor, Dr. Nada Porter, to attend the annual ENDO meeting with exclusive access to established experts in endocrinology but more importantly, is able to present their work on Vitamin D. Congratulations to Caitlin!
Congratulations to Michelle Stephens, a 4th year student, on her recent (Mar. 2011) publication acceptance to Neuropsycopharmacology.
Match Day 2011 results are in!
Congratulations to the following students who successfully matched the residency program of their choice. Scroll down to see all our fourth year students’ destinations.
Romulo Albuquerque—University of Kentucky (Ophthalmology) James Butler—UT Southwestern (Psychiatry) Willie Craft—Hahnemann University (Internal Medicine) Ravi Nirmal—Providence Hospital (Family Medicine) Michelle Stephens—Ohio State (Anesthesia)
Caitlin Latimer Crowned 2nd Place of Disney's Princess Half Marathon Half-marathon caps weekend of events that draws event record 22,000 participants at Walt Disney World Resort. On Feb. 27, 2011, Caitlin Latimer of Lexington, Ky. was runner-up in 1:22:26, to Jennifer Hanley-Pinto, 33, of Jacksonville, Fla.
Latimer stayed on her heels down the stretch but couldn't overtake her as she finished ahead of a field of more than 17,000 runners. In all, more than 22,000 runners participated in endurance events throughout the weekend at Disney, including a health and fitness expo, a 5K and several kid races. The weekend of events were all designed to celebrate and promote women's empowerment, health and an active lifestyle. The event is one of the nation's largest endurance race weekends geared towards women. Participants from 50 states and 21 countries were all running for the coveted Princess tiara medal.
Nature Medicine, which has published some 3,000 articles since its inception, has chosen Romulo Albuquerque's article entitled "Alternatively spliced vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 is an essential endogenous inhibitor of lymphatic vessel growth" as one of its 30 "Classic Articles."
Congratulations to our newest incoming students and recent White Coat Recipients: Adrian Fischl, Edita Klimyte, Kristin Linscott, and Erin Wolf. The 50th Annual White Coat Ceremony occurred on Friday, August 6, 2010. Go here for some picture of the event.
Congratulations to James Butler on his recent publication in Science, 2010 Jul 8 (Epub).
Congratulations to Dr. Natalie Wallis on receiving her PhD degree. The title of her doctoral defense was "PPAR-γ agonists as a potential treatment for preneoplastic breast cancer." Natalie will return to medical school (MS3) in the summer (2010).
Please welcome our newest student to formally join the program: Scott Silva. Scott recently transferred from UTMB after following his dissertation advisor here last fall.
Congratulations to Andres Chang, who was selected to present at the 2010 Negative Strand Virus Meeting in Bruges, Belgium. His oral presentation was selected for the Structure and Function Section on June 22, 2010 and was titled The HMPV F protein H435 region is an important but not sole regulator of fusion triggering.
Congratulations to Mellani Lefta and Andres Chang, who were each awarded an American Heart Association funded predoctoral grants. The title of Mellani's project is "Contribution of the circadian clock gene, Bmal1, in the development of dilated cardiomyopathy." The title of Andres' project is "Role of endocytosis and intracellular trafficking on human metapneumovirus fusion and entry."
Congratulations to our most recent MD/PhD graduates (2010): Willie Craft, Jr., Karrie Grear, and Jeffrey Yates.
Halcomb Graduate Fellowship established to support research at the interface of Medicine and Engineering.
Match Day 2010 Results for MD/PhD students: Karrie Grear matched at Wake Forest University in Neurology Chris Simmons's wife Katie Simmons matched at the University of Kentucky in Internal Medicine / Primary Care Jeff Yates matched at Indiana University in Internal Medicine / Pediatrics
Congratulations to Zachary Fulkerson, who was awarded a National Institutes of Health funded F30 grant titled "Regulation of Lysolipid Signaling by Autotaxin-Integrin Interactions on Platelets" via the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute in 2010.
The MD/PhD Program now has a Facebook group page.
Congratulations to Karrie Grear and Chris Simmons on their recent publication in Molecular Neurodegeneration, 2009 Nov 4.
Congratulations to Andres Chang on his recent publication in FEBS Journal, ePub 2009 Oct 30.
Congratulations to Chris Simmons on his recent nuptials!
Congratulations to Dustin Stephens on his recent nuptials!
Congratulations to Abdel Salous for receiving an American Health Association-funded research grant. He is featured in this video from the UK Cardiovascular Research Center.
Congratulations to Romulo Albuquerque on his recent publication in Nature Medicine, 2009 Aug 9.
Congratulations to Mellani Lefta, who was selected to present at the 2009 Chronobiology meeting in Strasbourg, France: Congress of the European Biological Rhythms Society (EBRS). Her poster presentation was titled Contribution of the circadian clock gene, Bmal1, in the development of dilated cardiomyopathy.
Congratulations to Romulo Albuquerque, who was selected as one of four presenters at the 2009 Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology Research to Prevent Blindness (AUPO/RPB) Forum.
Congratulation to Michelle Stephens, who was selected as a winner in the graduate student competition at the 2009 Spring Neuroscience Day hosted by the Bluegrass Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience.
Congratulations to Andres Chang, who received an Experimental Biology Graduate Student Travel Award to present his work at the 2009 Experimental Biology/ASBMB Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
Congratulations to Drs. Romulo Albuquerque, Nirmal Ravi, and Michelle Stephens on receiving their PhD degrees. Romulo, Nirmal, and Michelle will return to medical school (MS3) in the summer (2009).
Congratulations to our latest program graduate Dr. Janelle Reed, who graduated from medical school in May 2009. Janelle received her PhD in Anatomy and Neurobiology in 2007. She will begin her residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Kentucky in July.
Congratulations to Abdel Salous who was awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association.
A new resource has been added from the NIH Working Group on Women in Biomedical Careers. The newsletter is available on the resources page.
MD/PhD Program Brochure Download the MD/PhD program Brochure in PDF format. 2012 Spring Newsletter Download the 2012 Spring Newsletter in PDF format.
MD/PhD Program Brochure Download the MD/PhD program Brochure in PDF format.
2012 Spring Newsletter Download the 2012 Spring Newsletter in PDF format.
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