KU's Biodiesel Initiative Laboratory is leading in efforts to cut dependence on foreign oil. The lab is preparing processes that will convert waste cooking oil into fuel, and they soon will offer essential tests at very low cost to biodiesel refiners around Kansas.
Annual Report
Research and Innovation
Cancer Research
The university's No. 1 priority is to attain National Cancer Institute designation for the KU Cancer Center. To that end, KU Medical Center is building a world-class team of cancer researchers and physicians to make more discoveries, expand treatment options, improve prevention techniques, and provide cutting-edge cancer care to the heartland.
A partnership between KUMC and the School of Pharmacy puts the university in position to become a national leader in discovering and developing cancer-fighting drugs. In the Office of Therapeutics, Discovery, and Development a team of experts -- recruited from some of the finest talent in pharmaceutical industry -- is applying sound business theories to help KU capitalize on its pharma expertise and efficiently propel drug research efforts.
Moreover, individual investigators are conducting research with promising results. For example, Lisa Timmons, assistant professor of molecular biosciences, is investigating RNAi -- a process by which RNA molecules are tailored to eliminate a specific gene function within a cell. In her lab on the Lawrence campus, Timmons has discovered a link between the RNAi mechanism and ABC transporters, genes that move drugs and small molecules in or out of a cell. Timmons' research may shed light on the origins of aggressive cancers and someday lead to novel therapies.
The KU Biodiesel Initiative
- Researchers are converting waste cooking oil into clean-burning transportation fuel that soon will be powering campus buses and Facilities Operations equipment. The Biodiesel Initiative lab is leading the way for a biodiesel boom that could cut dependence on foreign oil while boosting the state's soybean farmers and cattle ranchers whose products are used as biodiesel feedstock.
Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets
- Ongoing research by CReSIS into polar ice loss aims to answer the greatest question facing climate change investigators: How will melting ice in Antarctica and Greenland affect worldwide ocean levels? Established three years ago by the National Science Foundation, the collaboration among university, industry, and international partners is headquartered at KU.
The north Greenland ice core project is part of CReSIS climate change research.
Caring for Patients and Their Caregivers
- Working together, researchers on both campuses are making significant research progress in unlocking the mysteries of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and are making new discoveries on how best to care for patients who suffer from strokes and treat children diagnosed with developmental disabilities.
- Research is helping the family caregivers of these patients as well. For example, Cynthia Teel, assistant dean and associate professor at the School of Nursing, is investigating the value of a telephone-based intervention program for family caregivers 55 or older. Dubbed Self-Care TALK, it may eventually expand into a lifeline program for family caregivers.
Applied Science and Technology for Reservoir Assessment (ASTRA)
- Communities across Kansas are experiencing low-quality drinking water caused by silt buildup in reservoirs. The Kansas Biological Survey, at KU, created ASTRA in 2006 to bring state-of-the art technology to bear on the problem. With acoustic echosounding technology, bathymetric sonar, a pontoon boat rigged as a coring platform, and cutting edge mapping equipment, today ASTRA is giving Kansans accurate and desperately needed information about the state of their water sources.
Kansas Biological Survey researchers survey bank erosion at Kanopolis Lake, southwest of Salina.
Bioengineering and clinical research
At the nexus of medicine, engineering, biology, and product design, KU's investment in bioengineering research will nourish development of a regional biosciences industry while pushing forward tissue repair techniques and development of devices that aid survivors of spinal cord injuries. Moving such discoveries from the laboratory to the patient's bedside is the ultimate goal.
Paulette Spencer, a renowned pioneer in the development of biomaterials, recently joined KU's faculty to lead a bioengineering research team of some two dozen faculty members in Lawrence and at the medical center.
Extinctions Explained
- A KU team may have solved a research riddle that has puzzled scientists worldwide: What causes the vast die-offs that befall Earth every 62 million years? The regular extinctions were discovered in the fossil record, but no explanation for these drastic reductions in biodiversity made sense -- until Adrian Melott and Mikhail Medvedev, professors of physics and astronomy at KU, theorized that the up-and-down motion of the solar system as it travels through the Milky Way exposes Earth to an onslaught of deadly radiation that exactly matches the die-offs in the fossil record. The scientific community has hailed the pair for their elegant theory.
KansasHistoryOnline.com
- This joint undertaking of KU's Hall Center for the Humanities and the Kansas Historical Society aims to bring Kansas' amazing history to life on the Internet by the sesquicentennial of Kansas statehood by January 2011. With more than 500 thoroughly researched articles exploring a range of eras and themes, KansasHistoryOnline.com will allow people from every community in the state to discover stories and documents that fascinate and build a powerful sense of shared experience.
A Look at Payday Lending
- As in most states, it is legal in Kansas to advance cash to borrowers with no collateral other than a backdated personal check. Indeed, "payday lending" has become a $28 billion industry in the U.S. Now, Robert DeYoung, the Capitol Federal Professor in Financial Markets and Institutions in the School of Business, has carried out some of the first academic research into this controversial practice. By looking at payday loans made in one state over five years, DeYoung showed that annual percentage rates for the loans could run as high as 450 percent -- and that lenders' profits come mostly from repeat customers who are caught in a cycle of debt.
Protecting Public Health
- The medical center's Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health is addressing Kansas' looming public health crisis through its research in to bacco cessation and obesity prevention. This research is intended to find the best solutions for these particularly prevalent health problems and ultimately help Kansans lead longer and healthier lives.
- Kansas is part of the epidemic of diabetes that is sweeping the nation. A collaborative diabetes effort between KUMC and other Kansas City-area health partners enables the university to expand its focus on translational medicine as a means to reduce the incidence of diabetes and diabetic risk factors, and help patients more effectively manage the disease.
