Focus on Faculty

B. Mark Evers, Markey Cancer Foundation Chair
A “shining star,” a “top-tier director,” an “accomplished surgeon and prolific researcher.” These were some of the accolades used to describe B. Mark Evers at the April 2009 press conference announcing his appointment as the new director of the Markey Cancer Center. But what stood out most was his modesty. “There’s been a lot of talk about me,” Evers told the audience. “And I’m very embarrassed about that, because I normally like to fly under the radar.” But Evers is on everyone’s radar. His research made headlines in 2006 when he discovered that the active ingredient in turmeric, a curry spice, could suppress the growth and migration of colon cancer cells. And his impact at the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he spent 21 years and created a second family, was clear when 32 of his colleagues followed Evers to UK. He’s already made a big impact in Kentucky: Evers leads a SPORE (Specialized Program in Research Excellence) grant in gastrointestinal cancers. The three-year, $1.5 million grant will help UK recruit researchers and develop more targeted therapies for colon and liver cancer. The Markey Cancer Center has one of six GI SPOREs in the nation.

Bruce Hinds, William Bryan Professor in Chemical and Materials Engineering
It’s not every day the President of the United States recognizes your research. But that’s exactly what happened for Bruce Hinds. He was one of 100 researchers nationwide to receive the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the federal government on scientists in the early stages of their independent research careers. Hinds’ work focuses on nanoscale device fabrication. Science and Nature magazines featured reports on Hinds’ research that discovered a way to make carbon nanotube membranes that allow fluids to flow through at a rate 10,000 times faster than normal materials, “which means membranes and filters can be 10,000 times smaller and more energy efficient,” Hinds says. Membranes are a critical component of a wide range of industrial processes including chemical production, energy storage, food processing, water purification, and medical devices. The work recognized by the Obama administration was an NIH grant to use this membrane to pump drugs, using very small voltages, in a programmable skin patch device for drug addiction treatment. Hinds’ work has been funded by the NIH, NSF, Air Force, Army, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Department of Energy, Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation, and industry.

Natasha Kyprianou, James F. Hardymon Chair of Urology Research
Approximately 234,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in the United States, and 30,000 men will die from prostate cancer this year. Haining Zhu in biochemistry and Natasha Kyprianou in urology are leading a team of UK researchers to identify protein markers in prostate cancer cells that indicate a likelihood of spreading diseased cells. With a $1.1 million grant from the Department of Defense, the research team is using mass spectrometry to identify “proteins of interest” in prostate cancer cells. These proteins have been identified as susceptible to spread to other organs. Metastasis of prostate tumor cells to other organs, primarily to the bone and lymph nodes, is the main cause of death for prostate cancer patients. The research could lead to new diagnostic tests that could head off the spread of prostate cancer cells to other tissue in the lungs, liver and other organs, and could reveal new protein targets for therapeutic prostate cancer treatment. Zhu and Kyprianou have collaborated on this research area for more than three years. Their partnership won them a Synergistic Idea Development Award (SIDA) grant from the Department of Defense. The proposal was one of only five awarded nationwide under the SIDA program in 2008.

Brent Seales, Jack and Linda Gill Science and Engineering Professor
In 79 A.D. Mount Vesuvius erupted, burying the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. In the 18th century, an ancient library in a Herculaneum villa yielded 1,800 papyrus scrolls, some that were so badly damaged—literally turned to carbon by the volcanic heat—that they crumbled into dust when scholars tried to open them. Half of the Herculaneum scrolls have been read, but the other half will require space-age technology to decipher their secrets. UK computer scientist Brent Seales has been working on just such a technology in an NSF-funded project called EDUCE (Enhanced Digital Unwrapping for Conservation and Exploration). Seales and his team spent this past July at the French National Academy in Paris, arduously making CT scans of two of these unopened Herculaneum scrolls. Seales brought back two terabytes of data that will be processed at UK’s Center for Visualization and Virtual Environments to produce 3-D images of the scrolls. His goal is to digitally “unroll” the scrolls, so scholars can read them. Scholars think the scrolls contain writings by Philodemus, a Roman philosopher. The readability of the scrolls may hinge on the ink used. Seales is hoping it was a metal-based ink. He says if the ink is carbon-based, it might not be possible to visually separate it from the carbonized papyrus.

Lumy Sawaki, Cardinal Hill Endowed Research Scholar in Stroke and Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation
A stroke often leads to lifelong disability. At least that used to be the case. In the past two decades scientists have learned that the brain is able to relearn and redirect more activity after a stroke than previously imagined. Brain rewiring can occur even for patients who had a stroke 10 or 20 years ago. UK’s Lumy Sawaki is on the leading-edge of this research. Her tools include constraint-induced movement therapy (where a stroke patient’s fully functional arm is restricted in a mitten to force the weaker arm to compensate) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (a noninvasive method that induces weak electric current in the patient’s motor cortex, the part of the brain that plans and executes movement). Mapping the areas of activity before and after treatment allows Sawaki to capture how the brain rewires itself. Sawaki says, “I have the tools here to ‘facilitate’ the rewiring process, but it’s the effort and desire of the patient that ultimately determines the outcome. I’m simply helping these people help themselves.”

Eugenia Toma, Wendell H. Ford Professor of Public Policy
How do you address the stubborn problem of academic underperformance in central Appalachia, where students consistently score below state averages in math and science? Target teachers. That’s the goal of a $24-million NSF-funded program called the Appalachian Math and Science Partnership (AMSP). With UK as the lead institution, AMSP created a partnership among 56 central Appalachian school districts, 10 higher education institutions, and the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation. Since the program began in 2003, more than 400 schools from four states have participated. But is the program, which emphasizes professional development for teachers, working? Yes. The stats from Eugenia Toma’s pilot project prove it: “We found improvement for seventh-grade science scores, eighth-grade math scores, and 11th-grade math and science scores.” Among the more specific findings: “After controlling for other factors, if the percentage of teachers participating in AMSP professional development within a school is increased by 1 percent, math scores of 11th-graders rise by .29 points.” With such promising preliminary research, Toma received an additional $1.5 million NSF grant to further substantiate these gains. The new study will conclude in September 2011.