October 27, 2004

Bowling Green, Ky. - The leader of a University of Louisville research team studying skin and limb transplants will speak at Western Kentucky University on Nov. 19.

Dr. John H. Barker, U of L's director of plastic surgery research, will discuss "Technical, Immunological and Ethical Considerations in Face Transplantation" at 6 p.m. in Thompson Complex North Wing, room 224.

Analyzing and evaluating the ethical and psychological implications of a possible face transplant is part of ongoing research at U of L. The team includes researchers from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, and recently participated in the first transplant of a hand from a deceased donor.

Dr. Barker's lecture is sponsored by the L.Y. Lancaster-Hugh Puckett Society. His lecture is free and open to the public.

A reception, sponsored by the Alpha Epsilon Delta Pre-medicine Society, begins at 5 p.m. on the first floor of Thompson Complex North Wing.

A native of Santa Barbara, Calif., Dr. Barker did his undergraduate studies at Santa Barbara City College and the University of California at Santa Barbara. He received his medical degree in his mother's home country of Argentina, at the National University of Cordoba, and received his doctor of medicine degree at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

Upon finishing his postgraduate studies in Heidelberg, Dr. Barker began his academic career at the University of Louisville as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow in the Departments of Physiology and Surgery.

Dr. Barker founded the Plastic Surgery Research Laboratory at the University of Louisville in 1989. Since then, his laboratory has grown in size and international reputation maintaining sister laboratories in the Netherlands, Germany and Argentina.

Dr. Barker's laboratory has received more than $5 million in research funding, published more than 250 scientific articles, made more than 200 presentations at scientific meetings, and has been awarded more than 30 prestigious awards.

For more information, contact Ogden College at (270) 745-4448. More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.