Tom Kuhn is BLaST scientist of the month

July 6, 2017

Photo by Amy Topkok. Graduate student Lisa Smith, left, and undergraduate Josh Hartman, right, observe Tom Kuhn, UAF associate professor of biochemistry, combine the stain needed to see cell processes under a microscope in Kuhn's Reichardt Building lab on June 29.

Thomas Kuhn, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is the Biomedical Learning and Student Training program's scientist of the month.

BLaST celebrates scientists of the month to help highlight those who contribute to biomedical research at UAF, especially in undergraduate mentoring.

Research
Kuhn's research explores the cellular and molecular mechanisms of inflammatory and oxidative stress as they relate to neuronal connectivity and cognitive function. In the aging central nervous system, inflammatory and oxidative stress can contribute to chronic neurodegenerative pathologies, such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes and human immunodeficiency virus-associated neurodegeneration. His research studies inflammatory and oxidative stress in combination with a natural products-guided drug discovery approach.

Mentoring
Kuhn has mentored 30 UAF undergraduate and high school students and has supported 10 BLaST students since the launch of the program (eight scholars and two graduate mentoring research assistants). He has supported over 65 graduate students as a committee member and has graduated five Ph.D. and five M.S. students. Recent BLaST-supported mentees have been accepted to professional schools and graduate programs, as well as a research internship at the National Cancer Institute this summer.

Teaching and service
Kuhn helped reshape the undergraduate and graduate programs in biochemistry and neuroscience. He teaches mostly upper-level science courses, such as Cellular Biology, Developmental Biology and Immunology. Together with Marvin Schulte, he started the University of Alaska Biomedical Research Conference as a way to enhance exchanges between all campuses of the UA system, including rural sites. He also serves on the Faculty Senate, as president of the Alaska Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience and as an ad hoc reviewer for the Journal of Biological Chemistry and other international journals.

Kuhn earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry and neurobiology (1991) at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Colorado State University (1992-1998) and the University of Montana. He is originally from Switzerland and enjoys spending time in the mountains.

BLaST is a funded by the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity program, a branch of the Diversity Program Consortium under the National Institute of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences. It is supported by the NIH with these linked awards: TL4GM118992, RL5GM118990 and UL1GM118991.