WVUToday

The newest edition of the Monti Bear series is now available at West Virginia University Hospital's Friends Gift Shop. Hug-A-Bear sells for $38.99, and a portion of that price tag will be donated to the Norma Mae Huggins Cancer Research Foundation at the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at WVU.

For the third consecutive year, West Virginia University Hospitals, in conjunction with the Center for Organ Recovery and Education, received a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Medal of Honor for increasing organ donation rates.

Three new Recovery Act grants will provide more than $1.1 million to the West Virginia University Center for Neurosciences this year, says George Spirou, Ph.D., who leads the organization and is principal investigator on all three grants. The extra funds from National Institutes of Health will allow the center to hire five researchers, support research on the development of cells in the nervous system and strengthen core laboratories.

For West Virginia University School of Dentistry student Zach Sisler, the required rural rotation is about helping people who may have not been able to afford the dental care they need. Sisler is completing his rural rotation in Berkeley Springs.

Living with a health condition can fill your mind with questions about its treatment and management. A new program by the WVU School of Pharmacy aims to ease your worries and answer questions.

Patricia Chase, dean of the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy, will lead a national search for the new dean of the WVU School of Medicine, Chancellor for Health Sciences Christopher Colenda announced Thursday at a forum for faculty and staff.

In the largest single grant of its history, the WVU School of Nursing has received $600,000 to establish the Helene Fuld Health Trust Scholarship Fund for Baccalaureate Nursing Students. The school will use the money to help alleviate West Virginia's shortage of nurses.

John R. Marler, M.D., 1980 graduate of the West Virginia University School of Medicine, will receive the school's Distinguished Alumnus Award on Friday.

Mouwafak Al-Rawi, M.B.Ch.B., has joined the staff of West Virginia University's Department of Otolaryngology as a head and neck surgeon. He will treat patients with benign and cancerous tumors of all sites in the head and neck.