This disease remains a mystery, but hopes are growing. Disease David Snowdon, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health at the UK College of Medicine, and the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging is leading the Nun Study, research into aging and Alzheimer s disease in 678 Catholic sisters. In addition to his discoveries that early life factors may cause or predict Alzheimer s disease, and that linguistic ability in early life is linked to Alzheimer s disease in late life, he also has found evidence that folic acid or folate, a nutrient found in multivitamins, leafy green vegetables and bread, may retard the destruction of the brain in Alzheimer s disease. Folic acid has a well-established role in preventing congenital nervous system abnormalities, such as spina bifida and mental retardation in children. Dental Implants Dental implants that replace lost teeth brighten the smiles of thousands of Americans.
Joint replacements help thousands more people regain mobility.
In 10 percent of cases, however, the replacement fails, often because of loosening. David Puleo, Ph.D., assistant professor, Center for Biomedical Engineering at UK, is investigating the use of growth factors, which are proteins that stimulate cell division or differentiation, to accelerate or enhance formation of bone around implants to form a stronger contact between existing bone and the implant. The project ultimately will benefit Kentuckians who will receive joint or dental implants in the future by improving implant success rates, speeding up postoperative recovery and improving quality of life. Cancer Discovering New Drugs to Treat Prostate Cancer Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer found in American men. There are about 180,000 new cases of prostate cancer in this country, and about 32,000 men die of the disease, each year.