What do one in five breast cancers have in common? Large amounts of a protein called HER2 (or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2). “Every healthy cell produces a normal amount of HER2, but HER2 is produced 10 to 20 times more in a cancer cell,” said Yehenew Agazie, an associate professor of biochemistry at the West Virginia University School of Medicine.
West Virginia University (WVU) has been selected as the first site for an innovative clinical trial to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Ali Rezai, M.D., director of the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, will lead the initiative in collaboration with INSIGHTEC, an Israel-based medical technology company who received approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin the clinical trial using focused ultrasound to treat Alzheimer’s.
Based at West Virginia University’s Eastern Campus in Martinsburg, Joy Buck, a WVU School of Nursing professor, and her collaborators will gather real-time data about overdose trends and assess the cultural barriers to—and facilitators of—overdose prevention. The findings gleaned from her pilot project may prove useful in other rural areas across the nation.
West Virginia University has named Thomas Mauger to lead the WVU Eye Institute and serve as chair for the Department of Ophthalmology. He will also serve as associate dean for practice plan integration. Mauger is joined by his spouse, Carol Laxson, who will serve as assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and as the director of diabetic retinopathy screening and prevention.
Randy J. Nelson, the Hazel Ruby McQuain Chair for Neurological Research, will serve as the inaugural chair of the new Dept. of Neuroscience. He will direct basic science research in the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute and its related programs.
Kaylynn Coates, a doctoral student in the West Virginia University Department of Biology, has received a grant from the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium to study how serotonin neurons are regulated in the brain.
Through a new Scholar in Residence program at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Douglas Myers, an associate professor in the WVU School of Public Health, will serve as a primary liaison between the School and several local, regional and state partners. As a “guest researcher” with NIOSH, Myers will coordinate opportunities for faculty, students and researchers to collaborate and share ideas.
West Virginia University researchers are working to improve screening rates for the state, which has one of the highest incidences of colorectal cancer and one of the lowest screening rates in the nation.
To remain effective, the pertussis vaccine must be modified to keep pace with evolving bacteria. As the vaccines' efficacy is declining, Heath Damron, an assistant professor in the WVU School of Medicine, is pursuing innovations to strengthen the vaccine and still keep it safe.
West Virginia University researchers may have uncovered the cause of muscle fatigue in breast cancer patients. Emidio Pistilli, Ph.D. A recent study led by Emidio Pistilli, Ph.D., associate professor in the WVU School of Medicine Division of Exercise Physiology and the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cell Biology, suggests that molecular alterations in the cell tissue of breast cancer patients may be the cause of fatigue in patients.