Wright Center Bioinformatics Specialist earns PhD and sets sights on future policy implications for Multiple Sclerosis patients
Defending a dissertation and subsequently obtaining a PhD is an enormous accomplishment. To Amy Olex, PhD, it is just the beginning of her lifelong journey in research which is deeply personal. Dr. Olex, senior bioinformatics specialist at the Wright Center, began her PhD journey a few years before she came to the Wright Center. She […]
VCU researchers develop COVID-19 testing method that is both accurate and fast
You wake up one morning with a fever and a cough. Where can you get a rapid, accurate COVID-19 test? The answer has plagued many people in the U.S., where the FDA has been slow to approve at-home, rapid tests, many of which suffer from high false-negative rates. And the more-accurate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) […]
Ten years later: How the KL2 Program at the Wright Center trained a generation of research leaders
More than a decade ago, the VCU Wright Center inaugurated its first class of KL2 Scholars, a cohort of talented junior faculty members looking to advance the world’s knowledge of health through clinical and translational research. Since then, 14 researchers have enjoyed the mentorship, protected research time and general support of their research careers that […]
Gretchen Neigh joins the Wright Center as new co-director of the Ph.D. program
The Wright Center has named Gretchen Neigh, Ph.D., the new co-director of its Ph.D. program. Neigh is an associate professor in the VCU School of Medicine’s Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and comes to the Wright Center with a wealth of teaching and mentoring experience, as well as research spanning across multiple systems and levels […]
Little-known resources, public access policy and data management: Eight questions with VCU Librarian Nina Exner
Nina Exner, Ph.D., calls her job a ‘funny profession.’ Being a research data librarian means different things at different institutions, but for Exner it translates largely into data management. She helps VCU researchers comply – appropriately and ethically – with the data management plans required by the government or foundations who give them grants. The […]
Physics postdoc Sean Koebley receives Spring 2021 VCU Science Communication Award
The 2021 VCU Science Communication Award was awarded to Sean Koebley, Ph.D., for his presentation: “Goodbye, P-value: Practical Bayesian Statistics To Replace Frequentist Statistics.” Koebley is a postdoctoral fellow in the Physics Department at VCU where he works with Jason Reed, Ph.D., studying novel methods for detecting genetic mutations using biophysics. This talk is the third Koebley […]
Studies supported by the Wright Center connect mammary hormone to breast cancer progression
The hormone prolactin has long been understood to play a vital role in breast growth and development and the production of milk during pregnancy. But a pair of recent studies conducted at VCU Massey Cancer Center finds strong evidence that prolactin also acts as a major contributor to breast cancer development and that the hormone […]
Navigating drug and device development: VCU Bench to Community series charts a path for medical innovation
Every day, millions of people in health care, from oncologists to rehabilitation specialists to dentists, use the tools at their disposal to help patients get better. “And everyone runs into times when they say, what if?” said L. Franklin Bost, MBA. “What if I had something better? What if I could give someone better treatment? […]
Wright Center series trains next generation of community-engaged researchers
How would you react if someone started a conversation by saying what was wrong with you and your family? Probably not well. And that’s exactly what health researchers often do, when they try to talk to community members, said Maghboeba Mosavel, Ph.D, an associate professor at the VCU School of Medicine’s Department of Health Behavior […]
Closing the gap in prostate and colorectal cancer disparities: a community conversation
Terrance Afer-Anderson wants to create an army of ambassadors. The Norfolk native and prostate cancer survivor wrote, produced and directed a movie, “The Black Walnut,” to bring attention to inequities in screening and mortality rates for prostate cancer in the Black community. “I tell men scared of the invasiveness of a prostate cancer screening, ‘You […]
