COVID-19 survivor and trials participant looks forward to traveling again
When Linda Thompson retired from the Virginia Department of Transportation in 2019, she started a new job the next day — getting fit. “My new job was going to American Family Fitness and getting in the pool and doing water aerobics,” said Thompson, 72. “I was really in bad shape when I retired. So it […]
Clinical trial may have helped COVID patient beat life-threatening pneumonia
Paul “Pee-J” Beverly doesn’t remember being airlifted to VCU Health from Lexington, Va., last fall. In fact, he doesn’t remember much of his COVID-19 experience at all. But his girlfriend, Angela Griffin, does. “It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever been through,” she said. “Not being able to see him, barely being able […]
Join the Wright Center in celebrating Clinical Trials Day on May 20
In March 2020, when the pandemic hit, there were no approved treatments or vaccines for COVID-19. A little more than a year later, much of the world is being vaccinated, and fewer people with COVID-19 are dying — kept alive and off ventilators with the help of approved treatments. None of that would be possible […]
The Wright Center is here to help with your research resolutions
Last year did not go as planned for anyone. But 2021 will slowly, we hope, bring a return to the new normal in our professional lives. If more or better health-related research at VCU is one of your 2021 resolutions, the Wright Center can help. Find your research resolution below and see how. Wright Center […]
2020 clinical research by the numbers
The researchers and study teams that make clinical research happen at VCU have gone above and beyond this year. They worked quickly to adapt ongoing research. They started new studies hoping to contribute to knowledge of COVID-19. They joined national and international studies. And they continued their important research on all the other diseases that […]
Wright Center Director contributes to public health messaging on vaccines
As the nation gets closer to authorized COVID-19 vaccines, VCU Health is gearing up to be part of the unprecedented distribution in central Virginia. Wright Center Director F. Gerard Moeller, M.D., joined other researchers and health care providers to offer fact-based perspective on the safety and efficacy of vaccines for a story in VCU Health […]
NASH and pericarditis: Wright Center researchers co-author two NEJM articles
Two leaders at the Wright Center are co-authors on articles in the New England Journal of Medicine this month. Arun Sanyal, M.D., associate director for KL2 Career Development at the Wright Center, contributed to research showing the effects of semaglutide, a medication used to treat diabetes, on nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a disease that affects millions […]
“We knew we had to be nimble”: Wright Center helps create new models for clinical research during pandemic
If you get COVID-19, go to your local academic research hospital. That’s what Margaret Lessard told her parents. “The pandemic really emphasized to me how going to an academic medical center opens up the possibilities for you as a patient,” said the senior clinical research coordinator at VCU Health. “We had treatments here that weren’t […]
Gut bacteria and health: VCU researcher leverages Wright Center resources to establish himself as leader in the field
Across the world, many years ago, doctors would prescribe unappealing concoctions of human and animal stool a treat a number of stomach ailments. And, in the last 10 years, clinical trials have begun to confirm why. “There’s really a factory inside our bellies,” says Jasmohan Bajaj, M.D., a gastroenterologist and liver specialist at Virginia Commonwealth University. […]
COVID-19 survivor finds hope and health at Community Memorial Hospital
“You’re not going to get anywhere with cures if you don’t have clinical trials. I do it because I might help many people down the road. I might help my daughter.” Rebecca Jennings shared her story about surviving COVID-19 at VCU Health Community Memorial Hospital. Jennings participated in a clinical trial led by Antonio Abbate, […]