National Institutes of Health Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

NIH Funding Helps Create New Program At WVU

West Virginia University (WVU) is launching a new training program focused on the community health impacts of air pollution.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded WVU $1.7 million for a toxicology training program which will bridge the disciplines of toxicology and systems-based medicine.

“One of my big concerns with modern science is that students don’t fully appreciate how our body systems work,” said Timothy Nurkiewicz, director of the WVU Inhalation Facility, in a press release.

He said students will study the various systems of the body and determine how inhalation of specific toxicants impacts their function and health.

According to the university’s press release, toxicologists who have that blend of expertise can be especially important to public health in Appalachia, where chronic conditions and exposure to airborne toxicants often overlap.

Over a five year period, 40 doctoral students will collect air samples in the local environment and analyze them in WVU’s Inhalation Facility to assess their toxicity.

NIH Funding Also Boosts Local Economy, Provides Jobs, Brief Argues

In its proposed budget released this week, the Trump administration called for big cuts to national medical and science funding institutions. In response, a medical research advocacy organization has published a brief on the impact of National Institutes of Health funding.

Most National Institutes of Health or NIH funding goes to major research institutes such as Johns Hopkins, Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania. But smaller institutions such as West Virginia University and Marshall also receive funding for research into health issues such if fracking has impacts on cardiovascular health.

The new report, published by the NIH advocacy organization United for Medical Research, argues that in addition to supporting vital medical research, NIH grants have broad economic impact on the labor force and local economy. In West Virginia, for instance, they report that in 2017 the state received more than $28 million in funding, which generated $6 million in taxes for local governments and supported around 400 jobs.

The Trump administration proposed cutting the NIH 12 percent and the National Science Foundation 13 percent. Medical and science research institutes around the country have pushed back against the proposal.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from Marshall Health and Charleston Area Medical Center.

West Virginia University Researcher to Study Fracking Effect

A West Virginia University assistant professor has received a $450,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to look at how airborne particles that result from hydraulic fracturing affect human health.

In hydraulic fracturing, oil and gas are extracted from rock by injecting mixtures of water, sand and chemicals underground.

The university said in a news release that public health assistant professor Travis Knuckles will spend three years studying how the particles can make it harder to control how much blood enters the capillaries. He will also explore at how the particles can make it harder to turn oxygen into a chemical that is a primary energy source for cells.

Knuckles and his research team will look at whether fine particles released by fracking are more toxic than particles normally found in urban air.

WVU Student Awarded Funding for Diabetes Research

A West Virginia University graduate student is studying an unexplored enzyme that could lead to new diabetes treatments.

Stephanie Shumar is a graduate student in WVU’s School of Medicine and is studying biochemistry and molecular biology.

“This is kind of the initial step for us to be able to understand something that has not been studied before,” said Shumar. “Hopefully this will put another piece into the puzzle of the different things that are affected in metabolic diseases, like diabetes. Hopefully this will give us a better understanding and provide a framework and something that, further on down the line, can be used to help us treat diabetes.”

The university says in a news release that conventional diabetes medications work by stabilizing blood sugar levels, not by improving chemical processes behind how the body produces and processes blood sugar. Shumar says that’s like a motorist who doesn’t fix an antifreeze leak but instead keeps pouring more into the car.

Shumar was awarded $88,000 by the National Institutes of Health for a two-year investigation into how one enzyme regulates coenzyme A levels and glucose production in the liver. High concentrations of coenzyme A in the liver can affect blood sugar levels.

Marshall Announces Partnership with the University of Kentucky

Marshall University announced Wednesday it’s partnering with the University of Kentucky on a multimillion dollar research grant.

The two universities are partners in a $19.8 million grant from the National Institute of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award. The money helps further clinical and translational science initiatives, emphasizing medical research relevant to the community. The goal is to speed up the process of implementing laboratory findings in patient care. Joseph Shapiro is the Dean of the Marshall University School of Medicine.

“This partnership with the University of Kentucky is frankly much more important than the dollar figure because this establishes Marshall and our healthcare delivery system as a potential clinical hub for clinical research going forward,” Shapiro said.

As part of the federal grant to UK, Marshall will receive $640,000 over a four-year period for efforts to develop infrastructure and capacity for clinical and translational research through the recently formed Appalachian Clinical Translational Science Institute.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

WVU Receives $1.8M for Kids’ Clinical Trials

The National Institutes of Health awarded West Virginia University a $1.8 million grant. According to a WVU news release, the grant will assist in building a pediatric clinical trials network across the state.

WVU will partner with hospitals, medical practices and pediatric health programs across the state to make treatments available to severely ill children who live in rural communities.

Patients seeking treatment from WVU Medicine Children’s often need to travel to Morgantown and stay overnight. The grant will give doctors throughout the state access to the same treatments that are available in Morgantown.

WVU Medicine Children’s offers 80 clinical trials that cover a variety of diseases, including cystic fibrosis and cancer. J. Philip Saul, executive vice president of WVU Medicine Children’s and the principle investigator of the program, believes the state will benefit from this funding.

“Already we have a big impact,” Saul said. “But this grant will extend some of the existing trials throughout the state.”

The grant to WVU is a part of a nationwide NIH initiative that focuses on how environmental factors affect the health of children.