Focus on Faculty

James Ziliak, Carol Martin Gatton Chair in Microeconomics
The University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research, led by James Ziliak, is one of three federally designated area poverty research centers funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services looking at the causes and consequences of poverty and inequality in the United States. The multidisciplinary center, comprised of 30 faculty affiliates in seven colleges at UK, has a research emphasis on the residents of the South.  The center is working on a number of studies with implications for Kentucky’s residents, including a project funded by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on links between education attainment and persistent poverty in Appalachian Kentucky, and a project on hunger among seniors in America funded by the Meals on Wheels Association of America.

Jayakrishna Ambati , Dr. E. Vernon Smith and Eloise C. Smith Endowed Chair in Macular Degeneration
Jayakrishna Ambati, vice chair of UK’s Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, continues to make discoveries that may improve treatment for macular degeneration. This medical condition is predominantly found in elderly adults in which the center of the inner lining of the eye, known as the macula area of the retina , suffers thinning, atrophy and, in some cases, bleeding. These impairments can result in loss of central vision, which entails inability to see fine details, to read, or to recognize faces. In one recent study, Ambati, working with his brother Dr. Balamurali Ambati of the Medical College of Georgia, found evidence that unravels the mystery of how a healthy cornea remains clear and free of blood vessels, which is essential for vision, and raises questions about the implications for treatments in macular degeneration, cancer and other diseases. In a further study, the Ambati brothers also discovered that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a substance that promotes angiogenesis—the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels. In macular degeneration, vessels grow through angiogenesis, destroying the cells that are required for vision. Scientists have long believed that turning off the source of VEGF would lead to halting angiogenesis and disease progression. These findings hold great promise for the future of macular degeneration treatment and research. Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the United States today for those over age 50.

Debra K. Moser, Linda C. Gill Chair of Cardiovascular Nursing
Educating people how to recognize the symptoms of a heart attack is a continuing research and outreach focus of Debra Moser, a professor in the UK College of Nursing. Many people don’t know the life-threatening signs of an impending attack, and even those who do often delay seeking treatment, wasting valuable time that could save heart muscle or perhaps their life. Moser stresses that if heart attack victims seek immediate treatment, the severity of the attack can be reduced, preventing irreversible damage. At UK, she is part of a research group developing the RICH Heart Program (Research and Interventions in Cardiopulmonary Health). The goal of RICH, funded by the NIH, is to improve the health of people with cardiopulmonary problems, particularly heart failure and acute coronary syndrome. This team consists of approximately 20 UK research staff, graduate and undergraduate students, and faculty from nursing, medicine and dentistry. Each year about one million Americans have a heart attack. Up to 45 percent of these people will die, 60 percent of them before they ever get to a hospital. But if they seek immediate treatment for their symptoms and get “clot-busting” therapy, angioplasty or coronary artery bypass, the severity of the heart attack could be reduced, preventing irreversible damage and dysfunction, says Moser.

Charlotte Peterson, Joseph Hamburg Professorship in Rehabilitation Services
Michael Reid, Shih-Chun Wang Professorship in Physiology
What does it mean to be independent? For people who suffer spinal cord injuries or simply face the normal decline of aging, muscle activity makes all the difference. In 2006 the UK College of Health Sciences hired Charlotte Peterson to jump-start the Functional Independence Research Center. Peterson, who has spent more than 20 years in the field and now serves as the associate dean for research in the college, is focusing on adult stem cell activity during muscle regeneration, with an emphasis on the effects of aging and obesity. She is also studying the basis for differences in muscle response to exercise. Michael Reid, who has been at the UK College of Medicine four years, has spent two decades studying the causes of muscle weakness and fatigue, especially in chronic disease, and investigating new therapies to preserve muscle function. Peterson and Reid will co-direct the proposed Center for Muscle Biology. “These two interdisciplinary centers will by highly synergistic, linking research and educational programs in basic, translational and clinical science,” says Reid, chair of the physiology department.

Lindell Ormsbee, Raymond Blythe Professor of Civil Engineering
The health of our environment, more than ever a hot topic, has always concerned Lindell Ormsbee, UK professor of civil engineering and director of the university’s Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute (KWRRI). Since joining the UK faculty in 1983, Ormsbee has been actively engaged in research, teaching and consulting in water resources and environmental engineering, and he has published more that 100 technical papers and reports on various topics in this field. His current research involves the application of artificial intelligence methods to solve complex problems in water resources. KWRRI stimulates water-related environmental research, assists academic units in conducting undergraduate and graduate education, encourages technology transfer, and develops statewide interactions among faculty and research staff, and the private and public sector. Ormsbee also serves as a commissioner on the Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission and associate director of the Tracy Farmer Center for the Environment. His work has generated more than $3 million in research projects from agencies including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Energy, and Environmental Protection Agency.