Professor receives funds for diabetes research

Dr. Jody Clasey to conduct clinical research into Type II diabetes in youth
By Josh Shepherd

A College of Education professor was honored this summer with the receipt of a major funding award. The money from this award will be used to help launch a clinical research investigation designed to examine factors contributing to the incidence of Type II diabetes in adolescents.

Jody Clasey, educator and researcher for the Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion, was named as one of two UK faculty members to receive Clinical Research Feasibility Funds (CReFF). CReFF funds are awarded by the National Institutes for Health, National Center for Research Resources (NIH-NCRR) through the University of Kentucky General Clinical Research Center (UK GCRC).

“This program [CReFF] is a resource to encourage young faculty to conduct patient-oriented research,” said Dr. Nancy Kukulinsky, UK GCRC Administrative Director. Clasey will receive $20,000 to support pilot projects leading to data for use in future NIH funded research.

Though the funding will be a boon to her work, the most important facet of this award, according to Clasey, is that it will continue to give her access to the resources of the General Clinical Research Center at the University of Kentucky. “One of the reasons I chose to come to the University of Kentucky is the fact that it is one of the few institutions nationally to have a GCRC,” Clasey said. She is also director of the exercise physiology core at the GCRC.

Out of 127 medical research colleges in the United States, only 80 have a GCRC, confirmed center administrator Kukulinsky. The University of Kentucky has received NIH-NCRR grant funding to operate a clinical research center continuously for the last 19 years, she added.

 “The fact that this award went to a College of Education professor is indicative of the broad range of our interdisciplinary research efforts,” Rob Shapiro, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, commented. Clasey’s primary appointment is to the College of Education, but due to her research interests in health, body composition, and endocrinology, she has had subsequent appointments with the UK College of Medicine and the Graduate Center for Nutritional Sciences. “The award is reflective of the high regard in which colleagues hold Clasey’s work,” Shapiro said.

 “I’m honored to receive the CReFF award and it will be a great help in financing my current studies,” Clasey said. She is currently using CReFF funds to assist in a study examining ethnic differences in insulin sensitivity, body composition and aerobic fitness in obese and non-obese adolescent females.