The Wright Center Bids Fond Farewell to Amy Olex after 12 Years of Bioinformatics Innovation
After 12 years, 57 publications, and a hand in securing millions in research funding, Amy Olex, Ph.D., is leaving the Wright Center — but not VCU. Her bioinformatics pipelines powered landmark cancer research, her COVID data work shaped health policy across six countries, and her teaching, from the "Bioinformatics 101" seminar series to a graduate course still running today, brought hundreds of researchers into the fold. "I don't know of anywhere else where I would have been able to get all of that experience in one job," she says. "The Wright Center really put me in a unique position."
Wright Center Graduate Students Win Honors at VCU’s 20th Annual Women’s Health Research Day
Two graduate students from the VCU C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research were among the top honorees at the 20th Annual Women’s Health Research Day. The event, hosted by the VCU Institute for Women’s Health on April 28, 2026, centered on the theme “Midlife Matters: Integrating Menopause Research, Innovation, and […]
From Richmond to Philadelphia: how a Wright Center KL2 scholar became a national leader in periodontal research
How does a junior faculty member evolve into a national leader in periodontal research? For S. Esra Sahingur, D.D.S., M.S., Ph.D., the catalyst was the Wright Center’s KL2 scholarship. Now the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Student Research at the University of Pennsylvania, Sahingur’s career trajectory—including nearly $4 million in NIH R01 funding—demonstrates how the Wright Center’s K12 Program serves as a powerful launchpad for clinician-scientists.
From A.I. to Wearables: VCU’s Wright Center awards four NIH-funded grants to accelerate medical research
RICHMOND, Va. — The C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research announced today the awarding of $100,000 to four interdisciplinary research projects at Virginia Commonwealth University. These $25,000 pilot awards are funded through the Wright Center’s $27 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), […]
National Leadership on Display: the Wright Center at ACTS TS26
Last week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Wright Center’s own Emily Zimmerman, Ph.D., M.S. and Leah Gregory, M.P.H., M.S.W. brought VCU’s innovative community engagement strategies to a national audience of peer institutions. They presented at the Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) annual conference, Translational Science 2026 (TS26), one of the most significant annual gatherings […]
Important NIH Update: BESH Studies Will No Longer Be Classified as Clinical Trials
A policy change effective for funding opportunities with due dates on or after May 25, 2026 affects how certain human studies are categorized — and funded. What’s Changing? The NIH has announced that Basic Experimental Studies with Humans (BESH) will no longer be classified as clinical trials. This is a significant shift that affects how […]
Celebrating Our 2026 Wright Center Service Recognition Honorees
The Wright Center is proud to recognize the dedication and hard work of our team members who will be honored at VCU’s Annual Service Recognition Celebration on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 at the Siegel Center. These individuals have contributed their time, talent, and passion to advancing research and innovation, making a lasting impact on the […]
Wright Center’s Innovative Study Recruitment Strategy Earns National Recognition
The Wright Center and VCU Health’s Enterprise Analytics built a specialized informatics pipeline within VCU Health’s Epic electronic health record (EHR) system to collect high-integrity data for a study on SNAP benefits. In the process, they earned national recognition for their software innovation.
VCU-VSU partnership leads to a long-term mentorship program with undergraduate honors pre-med students
"I consider this to be an investment in our workforce, and ultimately an investment in our patients." Meet the six Virginia State University honors students who recently visited VCU’s medical campus for a milestone day of mentorship and discovery. From one-on-one sessions with mentors in different medical fields to deep dives into big-data research tools, discover how this VCU-VSU partnership is helping future doctors find their "why" and prepare for the rigors of medical school.
From the Director: A Personal Appeal Regarding NIH Open Access Compliance
I am making a personal appeal to every researcher in our community to pay close attention to the NIH’s new open access policy. This is especially critical for Principal Investigators and first authors. The stakes for our center are incredibly high: if even one paper that cites our Wright Center NIH grants is out of […]
