Health Research

By 2050, 12.8 million Americans age 65 or older are likely to have Alzheimer’s disease. That’s more than double the number who have it today. Paul Chantler—a researcher with the WVU School of Medicine—is investigating the link between Alzheimer’s disease and chronic stress. What he and his team uncover may suggest new ways to slow the disease’s progression or even delay its onset. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke awarded the project $2 million.

Retinal diseases can make even the most mundane tasks—like cooking, driving and walking down the sidewalk—difficult or impossible, and they can’t be cured. WVU School of Medicine researchers Peter Stoilov and Visvanathan Ramamurthy are studying the role that specific proteins play in rapid retinal degeneration. What they learn may lead to new treatments that are more cost-effective and more widely applicable than the treatments available today.

Viruses may have a bad reputation, but with a little help from scientists, some of them can do great things. Wen Tao Deng—a researcher with the WVU School of Medicine—is studying how engineered adeno-associated virus, or AAV, could be used in gene therapy for incurable eye disorders. Her work is relevant to a range of conditions that affect visual acuity and color vision, including red-green colorblindness, the most common form of color deficiency. The National Eye Institute has awarded her project $1.9 million.

The amount in external funding for research and other sponsored programs at West Virginia University for fiscal year 2021 tops the previous year’s record by $8 million.

In a new study, Sunil Sharma, a researcher in WVU's School of Medicine, found that rural COVID patients who end up in an intensive care unit face a greater risk of death than their urban counterparts do. He also discovered that rural patients with COVID-linked acute respiratory distress syndrome are more likely to die than patients with ARDS that’s due to another cause.

A 39-foot customized Winnebago will serve as a medical clinic on wheels in even the most hard-to-reach areas of the state.

Uveal melanoma may be a rare form of cancer, but it’s almost always fatal. No treatments currently available for it can significantly lengthen someone’s life. WVU School of Pharmacy researcher Mark McLaughlin and his colleagues are working to change that. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a clinical trial of their new drug that precisely targets uveal melanoma, even after the cancer has spread to other parts of the body.

Infectious disease experts from both West Virginia University and Marshall University will team up to identify and track SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in West Virginia in hopes of preparing for and preventing future outbreaks.

Quality healthcare transcends the medical profession, as evidenced by a new project led by West Virginia University that includes not only health experts but engineers, a physicist, a lawyer and a business data analyst.

Christian nationalists are less likely to get the COVID-19 vaccine while political conservatives express high skepticism toward the coronavirus in general, two new studies published by West Virginia University sociologists conclude.