BRIEFS
Building a School More than 50 faculty members from across the Health Sciences Center met in
New Technology Will Probe Leukemia Cells
June to start the process of forming the first new school since WVU established a health campus in 1960. The planned School of Public Health
High Honor Yon Rojanasakul, PhD, has dedicated his career to cancer research. “Cancer is a disease that affects so many lives,” he said. “Almost everyone has someone close to them affected by the disease.” Through his research on how cancer cells gain competitive growth advantages over normal cells and how they become resistant to death, Dr. Rojanasakul , a professor in the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy Department of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences, hopes to lay the groundwork for researchers working to identify the causes of cancer and develop more effective treatments.
WVU a “Best Place” for Scientists
Each year, the WVU Research Corporation selects researchers for its highest
will be based in Morgantown and is expected to have a statewide presence. Representatives of all four existing schools and the Charleston and Eastern Divisions are participating in the planning process. West Virginia is one of a handful of states that lack an accredited school of public health. The West Virginia Legislature included $1 million in the University’s 2011-12 budget to support the effort. That commitment has attracted private support for the school as well, including a $1 million gift in May – expected to be matched by the state’s “Bucks for Brains” fund – that established the Stuart M. and Joyce N. Robbins Distinguished Professorship in Epidemiology. The West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation are providing financial support for
Protea Biosciences, a developer of bioanalytical technology, is working with
WVU’s research enterprise clocked in at number 20 on the Best Places to Work in
honor: the Robert C. Byrd Professorship.
Academia list compiled by The Scientist – a respected news magazine that focuses
Rojanasakul was one of only two selected
planning the school.
primarily on biology and life science. The magazine highlighted the cooperative
this year.
Alan Ducatman, MD, chair of the
unresponsive to chemotherapy. The collaboration will be a first use of Protea’s
Department of Community Medicine in
laser ablation electrospray ionization technology, which allows a researcher to
research climate at WVU and how it benefited cancer researcher Elena Pugacheva, PhD. Dr. Pugacheva and her colleagues at the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center needed a new, specialized ultrasound machine for research on cell proliferation. Colleagues across town in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences’ Physics Department rode to the rescue and helped build a new ultrasound machine from scratch.
“Cancer is difficult to treat because of the lack of basic understanding of the disease process.” he said. “Basic research helps to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, and treatments.”
the WVU School of Medicine, has been
rapidly identify immense numbers of different chemicals within cells. The device
named interim dean and is leading the
uses a special laser to burn a tiny hole in an individual cell, releasing a plume of
planning process. He has appointed five
cellular particles. The plume is intersected by a jet of ionizing gases and analyzed
interim department chairs. “During this
in a mass spectrometer – providing researchers with a wealth of data on the
transformational planning, the faculty
composition of the cells.
Rojanasakul has been awarded numerous
continue to publish new research and to
grants over the past decade to fund his
support an expanding teaching mission,”
research. His most recent award, a $1.4
Dr. Ducatman said.
At 90, Still Serving
million grant from the National Institutes
The departments and their interim chairs
This summer, West Virginia University neurosurgeon Robert Nugent, MD, beloved
of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, will fund research in identifying whether or not exposure to carbon nanotubes — one of the most commonly used nanomaterials in commercial and biomedical applications — causes scarring and inflammation of the lungs that may lead to cancer.
are:
to past and present staff, students, and colleagues, celebrated his 50th year
• Biostatistics: Matthew Gurka, PhD
at WVU. A crowd gathered at Morgantown’s Waterfront Place Hotel July 16 to
• Environmental Health: Michael McCawley, PhD
surprise and honor the longtime faculty member. Neurosurgery chair until 65, Dr. Nugent planned to keep teaching and practicing
• Epidemiology: Anoop Shankar, MD, PhD
medicine until he turned 75, a milestone he again passed without leaving his
• Health Services Administration and
career, patients, or students. At 90, Nugent still performs a couple of procedures
Policy: Michael Hendryx, PhD • Social and Behavioral Health: Keith Zullig, PhD
22 | WVUhealth
Laura Gibson, PhD, of the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center to help understand why some leukemia cancer cells become resistant to treatment and
a month. “I have difficulty giving up,” he explained.
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