Funded Projects

Explore our currently funded projects. You may search with all three fields, then focus your results by applying any of the dropdown filters. After customizing your search, you may download results and even save your specific search for later.

Project # Project Title Research Focus Area Research Program Administering IC Institution(s) Investigator(s) Location(s) Sort descending Year Awarded
3R01DA057605-01S1
Diversity Supplement - Rapid Actionable Data for Opioid Response in Kentucky (RADOR-KY) Cross-Cutting Research Increasing Participant Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement in HEAL Research NIDA UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY SLAVOVA, SVETLA STEFANOVA (contact); TALBERT, JEFFERY C Lexington, KY 2023
NOFO Title: Notice of Special Interest to Encourage Eligible NIH HEAL Initiative Awardees to Apply for PA-20-222: Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: NOT-NS-20-107
Summary:

RADOR-KY is a near real-time, state-wide surveillance system to monitor prevention and treatment services for opioid use disorder (OUD). This project will fill gaps in this system by capturing data from agencies receiving state funding to provide treatment and support services for people with OUD. Access to the additional data will help expand and improve surveillance dashboards being used to coordinate and target resources for preventing overdose deaths.

1R01DE033318-01
Understanding the Association Between Sublingual Buprenorphine and Oral Health Outcomes Novel Therapeutic Options for Opioid Use Disorder and Overdose Oral Complications Arising From Pharmacotherapies to Treat Opioid Use Disorders NIDCR UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY ROJAS RAMIREZ, MARCIA VANESSA (contact); OYLER, DOUGLAS Lexington, KY 2023
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Oral Complications Arising from Pharmacotherapies to Treat Opioid Use Disorders (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: RFA-DE-23-015
Summary:

Sublingual buprenorphine is a standard treatment for opioid use disorder and is considered safe and effective. However, in 2022 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration advised that buprenorphine is linked to oral disease. However, the underlying studies did not measure when oral disease started, how it progressed, or if other risk factors were present. How sublingual buprenorphine may impact oral health also remains unclear. This project will follow adults in two U.S. states who take sublingual buprenorphine or other medications for opioid use disorder to understand if and how these medications increase the extent, onset, and progression of oral disease, accounting for other risk factors.

1R61NS127271-01A1
Planning Study for the Development of Sigma 2 Ligands as Analgesics Preclinical and Translational Research in Pain Management Development and Optimization of Non-Addictive Therapies to Treat Pain NINDS UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY TIDGEWELL, KEVIN JOSEPH (contact); KOLBER, BENEDICT J Lexington, KY 2023
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Planning Studies for Initial Analgesic Development [Small Molecules and Biologics] (R61 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: RFA-NS-21-029
Summary:

Natural products, which are substances found in nature and made by living organisms, have been used in the past as good sources for developing new medications. Natural products isolated from marine bacteria that attach to the pain-signaling protein sigma-2 receptor (also known as transmembrane protein 97 [TMEM97]), may serve as a starting point to create new, non-opioid pain medications. This project will use chemistry and biology approaches to refine such natural products as a treatment for neuropathic pain.

1R01DA057686-01
Fast and Fine: NLP Methods for Near Real-Time and Fine-Grained Overdose Surveillance Cross-Cutting Research Leveraging Existing and Real-Time Opioid and Pain Management Data NIDA UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY KAVULURU, VENKATA NAGA RAMAKANTH Lexington, KY 2022
NOFO Title: HEAL Initiative: Data and Methods to Address Urgent Needs to Stem the Opioid Epidemic (R01- Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-22-044
Summary:

Timely and accurate surveillance of fatal and non-fatal overdoses is necessary in light of the worsening overdose crisis, but data is rarely available in real-time. Tracking non-fatal overdoses is especially important because patients who overdose once are likely to experience additional and potentially fatal overdoses. This project aims to increase the quality and timeliness of non-fatal overdose data estimates by analyzing clinicians’ notes rather than clinical codes from emergency department and emergency medical services records. The datasets and models produced from this research will be used to build an interactive dashboard with up-to-date, county-level overdose-surveillance estimates for use by Kentucky first responders to aid in rapid allocation of resources.

1UM1DA049406-01
HEALing Communities Study - Kentucky Translation of Research to Practice for the Treatment of Opioid Addiction HEALing Communities Study NIDA UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY WALSH, SHARON L Lexington, KY 2019
NOFO Title: HEALing Communities Study: Developing and Testing an Integrated Approach to Address the Opioid Crisis (Research Sites) (UM1 - Clinical Trial Required)
NOFO Number: RFA-DA-19-016
Summary:

Although there are effective prevention and treatment programs and services to address opioid misuse, opioid use disorder (OUD), and overdose, gaps remain between those needing and those receiving prevention and treatment, in part because of a need to better understand how to make these programs and services most effective at a local level. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) launched the HEALing Communities Study to generate evidence about how tools for preventing and treating opioid misuse and OUD are most effective at the local level. This multisite implementation research study will test the impact of an integrated set of evidence-based practices across health care, behavioral health, justice, and other community-based settings. The goal of the study is to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths by 40 percent over three years. The University of Kentucky is partnering with academic institutions in three other states to study the impact of these efforts in 67 highly affected communities. The study will also look at the effectiveness of coordinated systems of care designed to increase the number of individuals receiving medication to treat OUD, increase the distribution of naloxone, and reduce high-risk opioid prescribing.