The UK College of Health Sciences is in the TOP 15 in NIH funding for Colleges of Allied Health. The Office of Research maintains a list of open funding opportunities that may be of interest to CHS investigators. Visit our Funding Opportunities page for more information.

Ongoing and Funded Projects

• Understanding effects of aerobic training on motor cortex cerebral blood flow and motor performance in older adults.  
• Investigating early sucking behavior as a predictor of neurodevelopmental outcomes
• Improving function in patients with peripheral arterial disease
• Injury mitigation and performance optimization in the elite tactical athlete
• Improving resistance exercise outcomes in the elderly
• Effects of massage on skeletal muscle function
• Vitamin D contribution to muscle metabolic function in the elderly
• Muscle stem cell function in response to injury, following exercise, and during aging
• Effects of biomechanics and muscle function on lower extremity orthopedic injuries
• Preparing occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech-language pathology students to meet the therapy needs of infants, toddlers and children with disabilities for employment in rural areas (PREPaRE)
• Understanding vocal cord and laryngeal muscle function during aging
• Healthcare decision making of adults living in rural communities with acquired neurologic conditions

Recent Faculty Extramural Funding

Charlotte Peterson, PhD
Joseph Hamburg Endowed Professor

• Dr. Peterson received a five year grant of $1,933,021 from University of Maryland to collaborate on a research project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. Peterson will collaborate with Dr. John McCarthy (Associate Professor, Physiology) and Dr. Melissa McDiarmid, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology & Public Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine on “Biomarkers for the Early Detection of Adverse Health Effects Resulting from Embedded Metal-Fragment Wounds.”
• Dr. Peterson also received a one-year $20,000 supplemental grant from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine to collaborate with Dr. Mary McGrae McDermott, Jeremiah Stamler Professor of Medicine, on the NIH-funded study, “COCOA-PAD study: Epicatechin-rich COCOA to improve walking performance in PAD: the COCOA-PAD-S Study.” Dr. Peterson also received a $121,000 five-year grant from Northwestern University to collaborate with Dr. McDermott on an NIH-funded project entitled, “Improve PAD PERformance with METformin: The PERMET Trial.”

Anne Olson, PhD, CCC/A
Associate Professor, Division Director, Communication Sciences and Disorders
Sharon Stewart, EdD, CCC-SLP
Associate Dean for Special Projects, Professor

Olson and Stewart received a 4-year scholarship grant of $1.6 million for Health Resources and Services Administration for “SUCCESS in Speech Language Pathology.”

Phillip Gribble, PhD, ATC, FNATA
Associate Professor, Division Director, Athletic Training

Gribble received $2,000 from the Southeastern Athletic Trainers’ Association for a one-year research project entitled, “The Effects of Aging and Ankle Injury on White Matter and Balance.”

Joneen Lowman, PhD, CCC-SLP
Assistant Professor
Jane Kleinert, PhD, CCC-SLP
Professor

Lowman and Kleinert received $1,221,679 a five-year Personnel Preparation in Special Education, Early Intervention and Related Services grant from the Department of Education to fund, “Linking Kids to Speech-Language Pathologists.”

John Abt, PhD, ATC, FACSM
Associate Professor, Director of the Sports Medicine Research Institute

Abt received a $55,000 grant from the University of Pittsburgh for the “USASOC Injury Prevention/Performance Optimization Musculoskeletal Screening Initiative.”

Esther Dupont-Versteegden, PhD
Professor, Director of the Rehabilitation Sciences PhD Program
Tim Butterfield, PhD, ATC
Associate Professor

Dupont-Versteegden and Butterfield were awarded a five-year $2.1 million grant from the National Center for Complementary & Integrative Health for their project entitled, “Mechanisms underlying anabolic effects of cyclic compressive loading in muscle.”

Kevin Murach, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar

Murach, a post-doctoral fellow in Charlotte Peterson’s laboratory, received a three-year Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32) for his project entitled, “Fusion-Independent Roles of Satellite Cells in Muscle Adaptation.”

Travis Thomas, PhD, RDN, CSSD, LD, FAND
Associate Professor

Thomas was awarded a five-year $1.68 million grant for his project entitled, “The contribution of Vitamin D to Muscle Metabolic Function in Cancer Cachexia,” as part of the recently granted National Institute of General Medical Sciences’ Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) award of $11.2 million for the University of Kentucky Center for Cancer and Metabolism (Dr. Daret St Clair, Principal Investigator).

Student Grants

• Under the mentorship of Dr. Tim Uhl (Professor, Athletic Training) Aaron Sciascia (Rehabilitation Sciences, PhD program) received $8,230 from the American Physical Therapy Association’s Sports Physical Therapy Section’s Legacy Fund to fund a project entitled, “Using Prospective Outcome Measures to Determine the Risk of Re-Injury.”
• Under the mentorship of Dr. Phillip Gribble (Associate Professor, Athletic Training), Haley Mills (Athletic Training) received a $1,000 research grant from NATA Research & Education Foundation for her project, “Impact of Supervised Rehabilitation on Patient Reported Function and Re-injury Rates Following Lateral Ankle Sprain.”
• Under the mentorship of Dr. Gribble, Kyle Kosik (Rehabilitation Sciences, PhD program) and Monica Soyk (Athletic Training) also received research grants from NATA Research & Education Foundation.