While the utility of hydroxychloroquine in the fight against COVID-19 is still unclear, it still helps millions of people around the world manage autoimmune diseases. Mark McLaughlin, a researcher with the WVU School of Pharmacy, and his colleagues are trying out new versions of the drug’s molecular structure to see if they can improve its benefit to patients.
Fireworks-related injuries in West Virginia have shot up 40 percent since a 2016 state law liberalized the sale of certain fireworks, categorized as “Class C” or “1.4G,” according to Toni Marie Rudisill, research assistant professor at the West Virginia University School of Public Health.
Betty J. Puskar wanted to be remembered as someone who facilitated breast cancer care and for making breast cancer something that people talked about. She also wanted to be known as someone who helped people. A long-time supporter of West Virginia University and WVU Medicine, Puskar died at the age of 80 on Sunday, June 14 at her home in Morgantown.
Researchers from the WVU School of Medicine have developed two new COVID-19 tests. One is a diagnostic test that detects the RNA of SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—in nose-swab samples. The other is an antibody test that identifies a specific antibody to SARS-CoV-2 that plays a key role in blocking the virus from infiltrating healthy cells.
The coronavirus has driven us indoors and separated us from coworkers, friends and loved ones. That’s nothing really new for Sara Loftus, a West Virginia University geography doctoral student who is studying how to build an online community.
As healthcare facilities grapple with personal protective equipment shortages, West Virginia University researchers are going against the grain to help with an earthy, unorthodox resource: wood.
With significantly increased testing a key component in the battle against COVID-19, the Innovation Hub at West Virginia University is working with WVU Medicine to churn out up to 10,000 swabs weekly to meet demands for tests.
In this interview-driven series, “WVU and the Coronavirus” will examine what’s already known about COVID-19, share the latest information about the virus, explore how RNA viruses like coronaviruses work, and learn how the University community has responded to the global pandemic.
A new cohort study out of West Virginia University suggests one piece of life-support equipment—an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine—can be especially useful for treating some of these COVID-19 patients. But ECMO may be less helpful for COVID-19 patients who are older, who have preexisting conditions and whose heart function has deteriorated.
Breastfeeding may “rewire” babies’ brains in ways that help them acquire language, suggests a new study from the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. Using MRI, the researchers scanned the brains of 4-to-8-year-old children and surveyed their parents about their breastfeeding history. They found that the longer a baby was breastfed, the more white matter he or she developed in language-associated parts of the brain.