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.
Do the nutritional supplements people take or the diets they adhere to actually protect them against cardiovascular problems and death? Maybe not, suggests a new umbrella review of meta-analyses and randomized controlled trials by Safi Khan, an assistant professor in the West Virginia University School of Medicine. His findings appear in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
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.
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.
There’s a fine line between helpful and harmful inflammation. WVU School of Medicine researchers Gordon Meares and Savannah Sims want to explore it. They and their colleagues are investigating how inflammation spreads throughout the brain and what makes it protective—or perilous.
Six West Virginia University students will study or intern abroad this summer as Gilman Scholars. Wrenna Dorrer, Myya Helm, Iain MacKay, Morgan McCardell, Veronica Nicole and Juliana O'Reilly will gain skills that are critical to the country’s national security and economic prosperity while gaining an enriching cultural and career-building experience.
West Virginia University President Gordon Gee’s knack for risk-taking is generally well-known, as is his encouragement to students to live lives based on their passions, not their fears. In his weekend (May 10-12) commencement addresses to WVU graduates across campus, Gee urged future risk balanced on what they’ve learned.
Carry your keys; stick to well-lit streets; don’t go out alone after dark. People receive advice like this every day from friends and family members concerned for their safety. But WVU researcher Danielle Davidov is investigating bystander-intervention programs that engage the whole community, not just potential victims, in preventing sexual violence.