Research

Four WVU Medicine hospitals have been recognized by U.S. News & World Report as part of its 2018-19 Best Hospitals in the United States.

A five-volume report produced by a professor from West Virginia University that details a new approach to developing and testing short-span bridges is gaining world-wide recognition.

Carsten Milsmann, assistant professor in the C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry at West Virginia University, has earned the National Science Foundation’s prestigious CAREER Award for research that could help develop solar energy applications that are more efficient and cheaper to produce.

Johanna Winant, an assistant professor in the West Virginia University Department of English, has accepted a distinguished fellowship at the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Notre Dame to work on her book project.

Andrew Dacks, assistant professor of neuroscience in the Department of Biology , received a $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct research at West Virginia University on the effects of serotonin in fruit flies. Dacks and his team of researchers will study how serotonin affects different cells in the olfactory system of fruit flies and how those systems could apply to other systems as well.

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.

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 researchers are opening a new facility to capture valuable materials from a novel source – acid mine drainage from coal mining – turning the unwanted waste into critical components used in today’s technology-driven society.

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.

A West Virginia University researcher, inspired by living in the Mountain State, is studying what works—and what doesn’t—in social and educational policies that affect children and families, particularly in rural areas.