UK Accepts Major Gifts for Alzheimer's, Diabetes Research

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 10, 2013) — At today's meeting of the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, the board accepted two major gifts dedicated to health research at UK. Totaling nearly $5 million, the two gifts will fund research in the areas of Alzheimer's disease as well as diabetes and obesity.

The gifts include two bequests totaling $4.2 million from the estate of E. Vernon Smith, formerly of Cincinnati, Ohio, to add to the existing Dr. E. Vernon Smith and Eloise C. Smith Alzheimer's Research Endowed Chair Fund in the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging. Smith previously pledged $5.2 million to create nine endowments at UK; that pledge was fulfilled in 2011. Smith died in October 2011; in May 2013 the UK Board of Trustees accepted the first bequests from his estate. A final bequest is expected from Smith's estate at a later date.

The Barnstable Brown Foundation of Louisville has also given $600,000 to support the existing Barnstable Brown Kentucky Diabetes and Obesity Center at UK. The Center was established in December 2008 with acceptance of a pledge and gifts of $3.7 million. The current $600,000 gift is in addition to the previous pledges which have been fulfilled.

MEDIA CONTACT: Allison Elliott-Shannon, allison.elliott@uky.edu