Doctors at the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute have treated the first patients in the world in a clinical trial to collect real-world, post-marketing data on the use of a new device for the endovascular treatment of cerebral aneurysms.
Amelia Adcock, associate director of the West Virginia University Stroke Center, is customizing an app that helps first responders in West Virginia triage stroke patients efficiently when they respond to a 911 call.
West Virginia University researcher Steve Davis is piloting an intervention program that uses telehealth to connect rural West Virginians with nurses who can help them manage—and even prevent—conditions like these. The program will focus on individuals being discharged from long-term care facilities as they transition to life back at home.
West Virginia University researcher Jianhai Du is investigating how the retina pigment epithelium turns proline—an amino acid—into fuel that the retina can easily burn. Using animal models and primary human cells, he and his team discovered that if the RPE can’t process proline properly, the retina is undernourished, and retinal degenerative diseases result. Their findings, which appear in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, may point to innovative treatments that make incurable blindness preventable.
Researchers at West Virginia University have mapped the crystal structure of a protein that resides in our cells and determined—for the first time—how a drug latches onto it. The findings appear in Communications Chemistry, a Nature research journal.
West Virginia University researcher Nicholas Castle is part of a team investigating how nursing homes can best meet obese residents’ healthcare needs. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality—a division of the Department of Health and Human Services—has awarded them nearly $2 million for the project.
One reason pancreatic cancer is so lethal is its resistance to traditional chemotherapy. But West Virginia University surgical oncologist Brian Boone is exploring whether FOLFIRINOX—a new combination of cancer drugs—can improve outcomes in patients whose pancreatic cancer is “borderline resectable,” meaning that a tumor may be too close to a blood vessel to be removed safely.
Sundus Lateef, a second year medical student in the WVU School of Medicine and Bridgeport native, was one of only 50 students selected from across the nation to participate in the NIH Medical Research Scholars Program.
Inhaling dangerous particulates is a hazard of coal mining, mold remediation, sandblasting … and dentistry. Fotinos Panagakos, associate dean of research at the West Virginia University School of Dentistry, is collaborating with a team at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to study how microscopic, airborne particulates and gases might be generated during dental procedures. NIOSH—a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—is funding the project.
Kim Innes, of the WVU School of Public Health, and her colleagues recently discovered that greater exposure to perfluoroalkyl substances was associated with lower rates of existing coronary heart disease in adults with diabetes. PFAS, considered a public health threat by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are manufactured chemicals that were popularized by various industries in the 1940s because of their ability to repel oil and water.