Contact: Allison Elliott

“This program allows faculty and students to collaborate, to exchange ideas. This strengthens the university’s research enterprise and develops future faculty. Our students will also be able to lay down a great track record at the NIH, which will greatly benefit their future research endeavors.”

-- Nancy Kukulinsky,
administrative director,
General Clinical Research Center,
University of Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 20, 2005) -- The University of Kentucky hosts an innovative federally funded, interdisciplinary program that combines medical and dental clinical research and is among the first of its kind in the nation.

The Mentored Medical/Dental Student Clinical Research Program is administered by the UK General Clinical Research Center (GCRC) through the National Center for Research Resources, a component of the National Institutes of Health. The program fosters collaborative interest and expertise in clinical research in medical and dental faculty and students.

The program seeks to encourage students to pursue careers in academics and to establish sound clinical research practices. Mentoring is the key to the success of the program. Students will be paired with senior medical and dental faculty members who will guide them through research projects from development to implementation. These mentored research experiences will benefit both UK faculty and students in the College of Medicine and the College of Dentistry.

The 10 scholarship recipients, eight medical and two dental students, began the program during the fall 2004 semester. The medical students are Jason Chang, Agatha Spink Critchfield, Lindsay Burns Fox, Regan Ladenburger, Erin Manning, Michael W. Manning, Ellen P. Stilz, and Jennie Taylor. The dental students are Timothy Followell and Matthew J. Madsen.

“This program allows faculty and students to collaborate, to exchange ideas. This strengthens the university’s research enterprise and develops future faculty,” said Nancy Kukulinsky, UK GCRC administrative director. “Our students will also be able to lay down a great track record at the NIH, which will greatly benefit their future research endeavors.”