Research Focus Areas

Ag & Ag biotech | Biomedical Engineering | Energy Renewables / Biofuels | Engineering
Medical / Translational / Clinical | Pharmaceutical

Ag & Ag Biotech

With external grants and contracts now reaching more than $30 million a year, UK's College of Agriculture researchers address problems of agribusiness, consumers, international trade, food processing, nutrition, community development, soil and water resources, and the environment with more than 300 externally funded projects. The research continuum reaches from basic to applied science, with new fundamental knowledge as well as applied knowledge that has impacts on the lives of Kentuckians and people across the world.

Biomedical Engineering

Bioengineering Biomedical engineering involves the application of engineering principles to problems in medicine and biology to develop new knowledge, advanced sensors and devices and improved health care. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of the biomedical engineering research projects, the faculty have extensive collaboration with investigators in many units across the University of Kentucky campus, including the engineering, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, chemistry, biology and physiology, and the centers for Minimally Invasive Surgery, Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy, Membrane Science, and Robotics and Manufacturing Systems.

Energy Renewables and BioFuels

The University of Kentucky has almost 200 active projects directly related to energy or funded by the Department of Energy. These projects are headed by more than 100 investigators from many different parts of the university, including the Center for Applied Energy Research, the Kentucky Geological Survey, and the colleges of Engineering, Agriculture, Business and Economics, and Arts and Sciences. UK's renewable energy research focus areas are: Crops & Feedstock Production Biomass Processing & Conversion Genomics & Plant Genetics Policy, Commercialization & Relations.

Engineering

UK's College of Engineering focuses on fundamental research and R&D in the areas of biomaterials, sustainable manufacturing, the environment, nanomaterials, energy, and computer visualization. The College of Engineering has more than 400 ongoing research projects overseen more than 130 faculty members who often win large, multi-investigator awards that require multi-disciplinary research teams. The Center for Visualization & Virtual Environments develops computer-generated immersive environments, ambient environments, dynamic scene acquisition and preservation, advanced telepresence and telecommunications, and visualization applications for a variety of applications. The Institute of Research for Technology Development (IR4TD) is a leader in coating and surface technology with direct application to many manufactured goods, and partners extensively with the auto industry, including Toyota.

Medical / Translational / Clinical Research

Medical/clinical research

UK is one of the few universities in the nation to have a top medical center and all six health science colleges (Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Public Health and Health Sciences) on a central campus. UK basic science and clinical faculty are nationally recognized for programs in aging, cancer and cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.

The Sanders-Brown Center on Aging is one of the original 10 Alzheimer's research centers in the United States and the Morris K. Udall Parkinson's Research Center is one of only 11 centers in the country funded by the NIH. The Markey Cancer Center is a leader in cancer research, with projects under way in cancer cell biology and signaling, cancer prevention and control, experimental therapeutics and redox injury and repair.

Pharmaceutical Research

The faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and staff of the College of Pharmacy conduct front-line research in areas of pharmaceutics that range from identifying fundamental mechanisms of disease, to designing and developing new drugs, to understanding the impact of policies on health care. Funding for research projects has more than doubled over the past five years, and has generated discoveries and innovations that have brought international recognition.

The research interests of our faculty can be organized broadly into four major areas: Drug Discovery, Drug Development, Therapeutics, and Pharmaceutical Policy. The vitality of these research programs is evidenced by the many projects, often in multiple categories, that have been awarded nationally competitive funding and that are under way here in the College of Pharmacy.