The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Scientific Review recently appointed William W. Stoops, Ph.D., as a charter member of its new Interventions to Prevent and Treat Addictions study section.

Claire Snell-Rood, a behavioral health researcher in the UK College of Medicine, recently published her first book based on her time spent in New Delhi interviewing slum women as part of her doctoral thesis research.

The CCTS awarded pilot funding to 10 projects that foster collaboration and new medical product development. The pilot funding program provides research support and up to $50,000 for preliminary and proof-of-concept studies critical to moving basic laboratory findings into clinical applications.

Stephen Richardson developed the project, called "Bright Smiles, Brighter Futures", as a participant in the inaugural class of the Community Leadership Institute of Kentucky (CLIK). The program provides intensive training, technical support, and $1,500 to community leaders to address local health issues.

Though technology has made health care better, it has also fostered new challenges for the people who are responsible for delivering it. Big data is seen as a strategic asset with enormous opportunity to inform policy and change the way patients are treated.

Moriel Vandsburger, PhD, assistant professor of physiology, was awarded a five-year, $1.9 million R01 grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study new MRI techniques that don't use contrast agents and are safe for patients with kidney failure.

Dr. John D'Orazio recently received grant funding totaling $375,000 over three years to further his research on melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

The Community Leadership Institute of Kentucky (CLIK), which provides research and leadership training, funding, and technical support for community research projects, is accepting applications for its 2015 class.

GQ Zhang, Ph.D., will join UK as director of the Institute of Biomedical Informatics. He will also serve as chief of the newly established biomedical informatics division in the UK College of Medicine and co-director of the biomedical informatics core of the CCTS

Fourth and fifth grade students who partnered with UK researchers to study circadian rhythms, or body clocks, were recently rewarded with a trip to campus to get a glimpse of college life and what it's like to work as a scientist. During their visit, the students saw their heartbeats on monitors, examined slides under microscopes, learned how planes are built, and even held a human brain.