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Finding Crucial Answers to 21st Century Health Issues
The impact of nutrition on health and disease is becoming increasingly complex and important. Questions related to the impact of nutrients on everything from genetics to whole body metabolism continue to multiply, especially as obesity and associated chronic diseases become increasingly pervasive in industrialized societies.
The Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences at the University of Kentucky is an ideal setting to study these multifaceted issues. The Center offers an interdisciplinary program led by nationally renowned faculty that provides a high-quality educational experience across a wide spectrum of nutrition-related subjects.
Primary research and training areas target obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. Other areas of specialty include nutrition and oxidative stress, nutrition and aging, clinical nutrition, animal nutrition and food science.
New Interim Chair Shuxia Wang
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LATEST GCNS NEWS
Shuxia Wang
has been named the Interim Chair of the Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences. Dr. Wang has
been on faculty within the GCNS since 2005, and has served the
Center extensively in the missions of research, graduate training,
and education. Dr. Wang has a productive extramurally funded
research program focused on diabetic nephropathy, has trained
master’s and doctoral students within the graduate programs of the
GCNS, and has served on several standing committees of the Center.
CONGRATULATIONS
Katryn Eske in Dr. Bernhard Hennig's lab
successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation "Coplanar PCB-induced
inflammation and dietary intervention" on September, 17, 2013.
 Robin
Shoemaker, GCNS doctoral candidate in Dr. Lisa Cassis lab gave
an oral presentation at the American Heart Association’s High Blood
Pressure Research (HBPR) 2013 Scientific Sessions in New Orleans,
September 11-14. Her abstract had been selected as one of the top
four scoring for trainees and she was given a travel award to
present her research at the HBPR 2013.
Frederique Yiannikouris, Ph.D., Department of Molecular and
Biomedical Pharmacology, also from Dr. Cassis lab, was selected by
the Council for HBPR as one of the three finalists for the Harry
Goldblatt Award for New Investigators. Yiannikouris presented her
work for this prestigious award which recognizes a new independent
investigator who
has significantly contributed to the understanding of the causes of
hypertension and related cardiovascular disease.
Nicki Baker in Dr. Lisa Cassis lab successfully defended her
Ph.D. dissertation
on May 28, 2013: "Polychlorinated biphenyl ligands
of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor promote adipocytemediated
diabetes."
Third Annual Barnstable Brown Obesity & Diabetes Research
Day, May 13, 2013, Poster Winners: First Place went to
Frederick Yiannikouris and Yu Wang from Dr. Cassis' lab for
"Deficiency of angiotensinogen in liver markedly reduces blood
pressure in lean and obese male C57BL6 mice"; 2nd Place went to
Robin Shoemaker from Dr. Cassis' lab for "ACE2 deficiency reduces
insulin content of isolated pancreatic islets and plasma insulin
concentrations post-glucose challenge in obese C57BL/6 mice"; Third
Place went to Nicki Baker from Dr. Cassis' lab for "Resveratrol
protects against polychlorinated biphenyl-mediated impairment of
glucose homeostasis in adipocytes."
Lindsay Carter in Dr. Kevin Pearson's lab successfully defended her PhD
dissertation on April 26, 2013:
"Offspring and maternal health benefits of exercise during
pregnancy."
Maja Redzic won first prize in the American Society of
Nutrition (ASN) graduate student poster competition at the
Experimental Biology meeting in Boston, April 20-24, 2013.
Her award was for Epidemiology Research of Vitamins and Minerals
in the Vitamin and Mineral Research Interest Section of the American
Society of Nutrition.
Katryn Eske was selected as the recipient of the
2013 Pfizer Pre-doctoral Fellowship. The $5000 award recognizes the
excellence of her proposal project: "Docosahexaenoic acid is a
nutritional modulator of PCB-induced inflammation."
Nate Helsley, a GCNS doctoral candidate
and member of Dr. Changcheng Zhou's lab, has been
chosen as one of three finalist in the American Society for
Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Cardiovascular
Pharmacology (ASPET CVP) Graduate Student Competition. Nate will present his
research at the Experimental Biology 2013 meeting in Boston, April
20-24. Nate has also received a Graduate Student Travel Award to
partially fund his travel to the conference. Scientists and
researchers in the fields of: anatomy, physiology, biochemistry,
pathology, nutrition, and pharmacology will meet in Boston to
discuss the strides and contributions made to the field of science.
The 2013 meeting will feature over 400 booths, plenary award
lectures, pre-meeting workshops, oral and poster presentations, and
on-site career services.
Lisa A Cassis is the recipient of the Harriett Dustan Award
for Research Excellence by a female investigator in the area of
hypertension. Presented by the American Heart Association, Council
for High Blood Pressure Research in September 2012.
Nicki Baker, a PhD student in Nutritional Sciences in Dr. Cassis'
laboratory, is the recipient of the Karen Wetterhan Research Award
from the NIEHS Superfund Research Program (SRP). The award was
presented to Ms. Baker during the annual NIEHS-sponsored SRP meeting
in October 2012.
Nadeem Mohammed successfully defended his
dissertation in September 2012.
Kelly Putnam
successfully defending her
dissertation in August 2012.
Sean Thatcher
was appointed assistant
professor. Dr. Thatcher is also the
recipient of the 2012 Young Investigator Award of the Angiotensin Gordon Research Conference for a research presentation titled “Distinct mechanisms of ACE2 deficiency to promote AngII-induced atherosclerosis versus abdominal aortic aneurysms.”
Robin Shoemaker, Joel Thompson and Congqing Wu,
Nutritional Sciences graduate students, for successfully
competing for American Heart Association Pre-doctoral Fellowships!
Lisa Cassis, Pharmacology Chair
has been voted the 2012 Mentor of the Year by the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB) Women's Leadership Committee.
Dr. Cassis
is also the recipient of the 2012
Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) Mentor Recognition Award.
Manuscripts Accepted for Publication in September/October
Yiannikouris F, Gupte M, Putnam K, Thatcher S, Charnigo R, Rateri
DL, Daugherty A, Cassis LA. Adipocyte deficiency of
angiotensinogen prevents obesity-induced hypertension in male mice.
Hypertension, in press, October 2012. *An invited editorial
will accompany this publication."
Xie X, Lu H, Moorleghen JJ, Howatt DA, Rateri DL, Cassis LA,
Daugherty A. Doxycycline does not influence
established abdominal aortic aneurysms in angiotensin II-infused
mice. PLoS One, in press, 2012.
Poduri A, Owens PA,
Howatt DD, Moorleghen J, Balakrishnan A, Cassis LA, Daugherty
A. Regional variation in aortic AT1b receptor mRNA abundance
is associated with contractility but unrelated to atherosclerosis
and aortic aneurysms. PLoS One, in press, 2012.
Baker NA, Karounos
M, English V, Fang J, Wei Y, Stromberg A, Sunkara M, Morris AJ,
Swanson HI, Cassis LA. Coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls
impair glucose homeostasis in lean C57BL/6 mice and mitigate
beneficial effects of weight loss on glucose homeostasis in obese
mice. Environmental Health Perspective, in press, 2012.
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Mission
The mission of the Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences is to train highly skilled nutritional scientists equipped to tackle critical nutrition-related disease and health issues and pursue promising careers in the rapidly expanding nutritional sciences field.
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Spring 2012 Seminar Series
Our NS 771 Seminar Series is having a great start with outstanding speakers. Visit our seminar page for more information.
NS 771 Seminar |
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Page last updated Wednesday, September 18, 2013
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