Shidrokh Ardestani received her Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology from the University of Houston-Downtown in 2006 and her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Pathology from Vanderbilt University in 2013. She has held multiple roles since, including a three-year research position in the non-profit sector, as well as Validation Engineer and Operations Quality Engineer at Alcon, and Process and Validation Engineer at Novartis. She currently works at Piramal Pharma Solution as a Process Engineer.

Varun Dwaraka received his BS from University of California, Santa Cruz, and a PhD from the University of Kentucky. During his graduate work, Varun used Next Generation Sequencing and array technologies to identify key genes implicated in initiating salamander limb regeneration, and using multi-omic approaches to identify their upstream epigenetic targets. Through this endeavor, Varun led to the development of whole genome methylome, transcriptomic, and other bioinformatic resources for Ambystoma salamanders. These resources have been presented and published in regeneration biology and genomics. Now, Varun leads the development of epigenetic and multi-omic based clocks at TruDiagnostic, a company focusing on methylation array-based diagnostics to empower clinicians and researchers in better understanding the fluid epigenome.

Holly Symonds Clark, Ph.D., is the Senior Commercialization Manager for the Office of Technology Commercialization. She manages UK's therapeutics portfolio and works with UK Innovators to develop business models and commercialization plans for new technologies and directs UK OTC's resources to maximize the long-term impact of each UK intellectual property (IP) asset. Previously, Holly was the Deputy Director of the University of Louisville's technology transfer office, the Commercialization EPI-Center. She helped direct the office and managed new health-related UofL innovations, which involved intellectual property protection, technology marketing, license negotiation, and commercialization. She was also a Senior Technology Transfer Specialist at the National Cancer Institute. Holly has a B.S. in biology/genetics from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Pittsburgh, and she was a post-doctoral fellow in cancer research at Duke University.

Jessica Koenigsknecht-Talboo earned a BS degree in Biology from Baldwin-Wallace College and PhD from the Department of Neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University. Following graduate school, Jessica worked as a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at Washington University School of Medicine in a premier Alzheimer’s disease laboratory under the mentorship of Dr. David Holtzman. In 2009, she joined the Medical Alumni and Development team at Washington University in St. Louis and began her work in corporate and foundation relations. In 2014, Jessica was recruited to the University of Kentucky to work in corporate and foundation relations with a focus on health affairs and has since transitioned to being the Director of Foundation and Corporate Philanthropy in UK Philanthropy. Outside of work, Jessica enjoys spending time outside hiking, paddleboarding, and walking her dogs, but most of her time is actually spent going to her sons’ sports events and activities.

Dr. Barbara Stone is the Director of Laboratory Animal Research and the Chair of the Animal Care and Use Committee at ParaTechs Corporation. As a senior research scientist at ParaTechs since 2009, her primary responsibility is for technology development and verification for assisted reproductive technologies for both mice and rats. As Principal Investigator for multiple funding awards from the National Institutes of Health and state agencies, she both authors and executes research projects. Dr. Stone is also involved in technology transfer and has taught over 40 training workshops at international meetings and research institutions. She regularly lectures regarding the use of the 3Rs of humane animal experimentation for the replacement, reduction, and refinement of animals used in research. She is currently contributing to invention, development, and marketing of several products in the ParaTechs portfolio. Dr. Stone received her BS from the University of Illinois and her PhD from UCLA with post-doctoral positions at UNC Chapel Hill and the University of Kentucky.

Ayşe received her Bachelor of Science in Midwifery from Marmara University and her Master of Science in Nursing from Istanbul Bilim University, Istanbul, Turkey. She has been a registered midwife for ten years and a registered nurse for seven years. Her clinical experience as a midwife-nurse revolves around working at various departments of women’s health for six years. Over the past 10 years, she worked as a clinical women’s health educator in the development of women’s health education programs in healthcare settings. As a researcher, she has experience working and conducting research with women experiencing IPV. Her focus of research is to develop interdisciplinary IPV prevention programs to address barriers and facilitators in the help seeking process for IPV from formal resources. Ayşe recently completed the MSN to PhD program at the University of Cincinnati-College of Nursing. Currently, Ayşe is a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Research on Violence Against Women and Department of Biostatistics.

Soroosh Torabi, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His passion is to find easy-to-use engineering solutions for complicated biological and health-related problems. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of Kentucky in 2021, where he developed a 3D cell culture platform for cancer studies. As a postdoc, Soroosh has applied his expertise in bio-microfluidics to develop cellular HIV assays and establish SARS-CoV-2 detection methods from environmental samples. Beyond research, he enjoys entrepreneurship, playing sports, and spending time with his family .

Carlos is a postdoc in David Weisrock's lab at the Department of Biology. Born in Mexico, he completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He then emigrated to Australia to pursue his PhD at the Australian National University. He is mainly interested in the evolutionary outcomes of past environmental change and between-species interactions. He mainly works on amphibians and reptiles, which have proven to be an excellent model to answer the questions he is interested in

Edem Onyameh, PhD received her B.S in Ghana and PhD in 2019 from the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Florida A&M University where she developed Central Nervous System (CNS) Multi-receptor ligands for Schizophrenia. Her research interest includes drug design and development, multi-step and microwave synthesis as well as HPLC analysis. She has authored five manuscripts and presented her work at national conferences. In her current role as a Post-doctoral scholar at the University of Kentucky, she is on a quest to develop a potential rescue agent for opioid overdose.

Sinu Rose works as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Department of History at the University of Kentucky. She has done her doctoral research on southern India's pre-colonial indigenous church architecture and received her Doctoral degree from the University of Hyderabad, India, in 2021. Besides continuing her research on Christianity and its diverse traditions globally, she teaches two 300- level history courses for undergraduates. A book based on her research is under the publisher's review.

Dr. John C. Gensel is an Endowed Chair and Acting Director of the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. He is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology. The Gensel laboratory aims to understand the cellular and molecular events resulting from neurotrauma and facilitate the translational development of therapies that improve the lives of individuals with traumatic brain or spinal cord injuries. His current research focus includes understanding and manipulating inflammatory responses to spinal cord injury (SCI) to reduce secondary injury processes and examining both age and sex as biological variables in the pathophysiology of neurotrauma. Dr. Gensel is a member of the Graduate Affairs Committee in Physiology and on the admissions/advisory committees for the Masters of Science in Medical Sciences and M.D./Ph.D. programs. Over the past year, he served as the primary mentor for five NIH-funded training fellows (4 pre-doc, 1 post-doc) and is M-PI for the T32 training program in the Neurobiology of CNS Injury and Repair. Dr. Gensel received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from The Ohio State University. He received his postdoctoral training in the Departments of both Neuroscience and Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics at Ohio State.

Erome is a postdoctoral research scholar at the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Pharmacy. She is a member of the Van Lanen and Thorson research groups studying the biosynthesis of antimicrobial and antitumor natural products. Her research interests include chemical biology, protein engineering, biocatalysis bioorganic chemistry, and natural products. During her postdoc tenure she has worked as an Office of Technology and Commercialization (OTC) Fellow and served as a postdoc liaison to the Graduate Student Congress for the Society of Postdoctoral Scholars (SOPS) in which she now serves as president. She earned her PhD from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with professor Jiantao Guo where she received training in biochemistry, chemical biology and biocatalysis. She is also an astronomy enthusiast and enjoys reading, and music.

Dr. Bruno Menarim graduated from veterinary school at the Midwestern State University, Brazil, in 2004. He subsequently completed a residency Large Animal Surgery with a Master’s degree in veterinary Radiology at the Sao Paulo State University in 2008 and became a member of the Brazilian College of Veterinary Surgery and Anesthesiology. Dr. Menarim practiced in the field of Equine Sports Medicine and Surgery in Brazil and further joined the College of Veterinary Medicine at Universidad Austral de Chile as an Assistant and further Associate Professor of Equine Surgery. In 2015, Dr. Menarim joined the Comparative Musculoskeletal Research Lab at the Virginia Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, receiving a PhD in Orthopedic Immunology and Regenerative Medicine in 2019. Dr. Menarim’s research focus is musculoskeletal development and joint pathobiology and immunology aimed at inflammation resolution of musculoskeletal tissues. He is the author or co-author of over 25 refereed publications, and more than 100 scientific proceedings chapters and abstracts.

Nancy Schoenberg serves as the Marion Pearsall Professor of Behavioral Science in UK’s College of Medicine and founding director of the Center for Health Equity Transformation, an Associate Vice President for Research, and an Associate Director of UK’s Center for Clinical and Translational Research. Dr. Schoenberg received her BA in Political Science and Development Economics from Franklin and Marshall College and her MA and PhD in anthropology from the University of Texas and University of Florida, respectively. Her research involves implementing culturally adapted interventions to prevent and control diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases particularly among rural residents and other underserved populations. Her research has been continuously funded over the past twenty years by the National Institutes of Health.. She and her colleagues have published over 200 abstracts and 160+ peer reviewed publications. She regularly serves on grant review panels, editorial boards, and partners on research projects allowing her to forge invaluable networks of collaborators from across the nation and the world. Her passion for research is matched by her commitment to training the next generation of health equity scholars. She has served as PI, MPI or co-investigator on seven training grants, as mentor to NRSA and K awardees, and as a mentor to over 80 doctoral, postdoctoral, or junior faculty members. During her more than two decades on UK’s faculty, she has been privileged to participate in and lead efforts that empower community stakeholders, students and faculty to undertake creative and impactful research and scholarship to achieve health equity.

Dr. Hammill is a director in the department of Discovery Chemistry and Research Technology (DCRT) at Eli Lilly & Company and adjunct faculty member in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Hammill obtained his BA in chemistry from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. This is where he got his first taste of research working as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Summer Research Scholar with Professor Ryan Mehl, using site-specific incorporation of unnatural amino acids and Fluorine NMR to probe protein structure and reactivity. He then pursued a PhD in organic chemistry under the mentorship of Dr. Peter Wipf at the University of Pittsburgh. His doctoral work focused on the chemical syntheses of peptidic, natural product inspired, and heterocyclic small molecules. He was then awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Post-Doctoral Fellow which he undertook with the guidance of Drs. R. Kip Guy and Brenda A. Schulman at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. During is postdoctoral studies, he refined his skills as a synthetic chemist while learning how to incorporate in vitro and in vivo toxicology, pharmacokinetics studies, and cell biology into the drug discovery process. He then accepted a scientist III role, moving with Dean Guy to the University of Kentucky to assist with strategic planning, scientific writing, budget management, and trainee oversight, while continuing to support synthetic chemistry efforts. At UK, his research focused on infectious disease, oncology, and methamphetamine use disorder. He quickly rose through the ranks to finally become a research assistant professor. In 2022, Dr. Hammill accepted his current position at Eli Lilly focusing on developing new medicines for diabetes and neurodegeneration. His diverse research experience has instilled in him a passion to solve complex, biologically relevant, synthetic problems through constant self-education, hard work, and collaborations with other researchers. He is the author of 23 papers and the inventor on 1 issued patent.

Aardra Kachroo, Ph.D. is a Professor in Plant Pathology in the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the University of Kentucky. Kachroo completed Launch Blue's UAccel program as part of Cohort 3. Her technology is on plant immunity, where the technology is targeted toward disease management in crops and horticulturally important crops. This chemical-free technology will enhance plant tolerance to a wide array of microbial diseases while minimizing environmental, human health and regulatory concerns. The technology will lower production costs and impact the U.S. agricultural economy. She has been nominated to the editorial board of Plant Physiology, Journal of the American Association of Plant Biologists, featured as one of 56 Lexington Women of Color: In Honor of VP Kamala Harris. and received the Young Women Investigator Travel Award by the American Society of Plant Biologists, along with other accolades. Kachroo has 74 publications, six book chapters, and three patents. She has a Ph.D. in Microbiology from Maharaja SAyajirao University of Baroda, India & The Salk Institute of Biological Studies in California, and an M.S. in Biotechnology from Maharaja Sayajirao University and a B.S. in Microbiology from Ramnarian Ruia College in Mumbai, India.

Taunya Phillips is the director of the Office of Technology Commercialization at the University of Kentucky, overseeing a team of 16 staff managing the University’s intellectual property, licensing and startup portfolios. Previously, she was the senior associate director of New Ventures & Alliances, overseeing key alliances for OTC and managing support and services for UK and Lexington entrepreneurs and startups. She has worked at UK since 1999, where she has been assistant vice president for Commercialization & Economic Development, chief financial officer for Kentucky Technology Inc (KTI), College of Engineering lecturer, and Minority Engineering program director.

Before UK, Taunya worked at Milliken & Company, a chemical and textile manufacturer. Positions included production manager, process engineer, technical salesperson, and marketing analyst & planner. Taunya is a National Academy of Inventors (NAI) honorary member, on the College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council, a Midwest University Research Network (MRUN) board member, and past president of the UK Alumni Association board of directors. In addition, she was the 2014-2015 board chair for Opportunity for Work and Learning Incorporated and is a past president of the UK College of Engineering Alumni Association Board. Taunya has a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering and a Master of Business Administration, both from the University of Kentucky.