Major WVU grant enables focus on worst WV health problems - WOWK 13 Charleston, Huntington WV News, Weather, Sports

West Virginians' chances against cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke, and obesity-related diseases are expected to improve greatly with a major, highly collaborative statewide effort announced and celebrated Aug. 15 at West Virginia University.

The university announced that the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center has been awarded a $19.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to address the health problems that most commonly affect West Virginians.

The award and what it catalyzes represent "a turning point in the ability of this university's research mission to have a real impact on the health and well-being across the state of West Virginia and to transform lives and eliminate health disparities," said WVU Chancellor for Health Sciences Christopher Colenda.

Additional commitments raise the total to $53.1 million over the coming five years.

Using that funding, the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute will manage partnerships within the university, across the state and beyond the state's borders that Colenda said take the university to a "higher level as a research institution."

Colenda explained that clinical and translational science tightens the connection between the laboratory and the bedside, including the work of educators, administrators and policymakers in between, with the express goal of transforming the health of the people in the community.

"Our science will not be judged just on the excellence of its scientific merit, but on its impact on real world conditions," he said.

"I consider this one of the greatest accomplishments to have occurred in the history of WVU Health Sciences. It will help us to transform lives and eliminate the health disparities in the state," he said.

The award will support the hiring of 24 new physician scientists over the next five years and will fill 22 other staff and professional positions.

By providing those researchers and support personnel and other research infrastructure, the award works as a leg up to a higher level of research, qualifying WVU for more and greater disease-targeted funding from the NIH.

Statewide, the broad partnership includes the WVU Health Sciences schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy and public health; WVU Healthcare and the West Virginia United Health System; Charleston Area Medical Center, CAMC Institute and WVU–Charleston; the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine and other organizations.

The competitive award was based on a nearly 500-page application to the NIH.  With it, according to Health Sciences Center press materials, WVU joins an elite national consortium committed to improving human health by streamlining science and improving the dissemination of research.

It stands as "an endorsement from the highest levels of biomedical research establishment that WVU is on the right path," said WVU President James Clements.

Clements said this work is a priority across the university, and noted specific commitments from the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources, the College of Human Resources and Education, the School of Journalism, the College of Business and Economics and the WVU Research Corp.

The grant also allows the West Virginia Clinical and Translational Science Institute to establish collaborations with other institutions that have NIH-funded programs in clinical and translational research, such as the University of Kentucky, Ohio State University and Indiana University.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, who traveled to Morgantown for the announcement, said the research done with this grant has the potential to improve and save lives.

"There are hundreds of families who pray every day for a miracle, a miracle that would heal their loved ones," Tomblin said. "Your research can be the answer to their prayers."