Welcome to our Newest MD/PhD Students

Our entering class for the 2018-2019 school year. Ethan Glaser and TJ Libecap

The UK College of Medicine hosted the Class of 2022 White Coat Ceremony on Friday, August 3rd, 2018 at the Otis A. Singletary Center for the Arts. 

We wish our incoming MD/PhD students and the whole University of Kentucky Class of 2022 the best as they embark on on this stage of of their medical training. 

More about our incoming students:

T.J. Libecap

I am from Los Angeles, California and graduated from Emory University in 2016 with a B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. Before coming to the University of Kentucky, I worked on a variety of research projects which studied the neurodevelopment of the rhesus macaque prefrontal cortex as it relates to schizophrenia, the neuroendocrinology of behavior in the White-throated sparrow and zebra finch, and the development of retinal ganglion cells in zebrafish. My project this summer at UK compared medical outcomes among substance abuse patients. I was drawn to UK in part due to the Sanders Brown Center on Aging, where I hope to explore the role of substance abuse on brain development and aging. In my free time, I enjoy running, trying Lexington breweries, and spending time with friends and family. I look forward to growing as a physician scientist during my time in the MD/PhD program here at UK.

Ethan Glaser

I grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland and graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Throughout my undergraduate career I did medical device research in a biomaterials lab at the FDA, biosensor research in a bioanalytical electrochemistry lab at UMBC, and HIV research in an immunology lab at the University of Colorado. After graduating I spent two and a half years researching the pathobiology of traumatic brain injury in the lab of Dr. Alan Faden at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. I studied how sex and age can alter microglial phenotype and immune cell infiltration following a severe traumatic brain injury and how this impacts neurological outcome. I also studied the therapeutic efficacy and mechanism of cell cycle modulating drugs on neuronal death following traumatic brain injury. My time in Dr. Faden’s lab solidified my commitment to researching the central nervous system more specifically in the context of trauma. University of Kentucky’s MD/PhD program was an excellent fit for me because of the remarkable research at the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center along with the work done at the world-class Sanders Brown Center on Aging. In my free time, I enjoy playing football, swimming, biking, and cooking, as well as spending time with friends and family.