Health Sciences Center receives NIH grant to evaluate, improve Appalachian health

The West Virginia University Health Sciences Center has been awarded a $19.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

NIH is a federal agency that provides funds from government research labs across the globe.

The Clinical and Translational Research Grant (CTR) will aid the University in funding to put infrastructure in place for translational research.

The grant will also support recruitment, and additional funding for smaller-scale grants will also be available.

The funding goes to academic medical centers, such as WVU, and various institutions of all sizes provide better care for patients, create smaller-scale research grants and improve their facilities.

Glenn Dillon, vice president for Health Sciences Research and Graduate Education at WVU’s Health Sciences Center, said with this grant, WVU will be able to take the science obtained from the laboratory straight to the patients in its clinics. This type of direct communication will help improve patient knowledge and care, he said.

"The overall idea is to focus on diseases and health conditions that are of high priority to West Virginia," Dillon said. "We have a high incidence of cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes that we want to make sure are supported and taken care of."

The grant will help support the study of disease that affects the Appalachian region as a whole.

Dillon said various other states face similar health-related issues. Therefore, various institutions have been awarded the grant to help improve the quality of health.

Those institutions awarded the CTR grant will work collaboratively as an effort to become more effective in solving health issues that affect the entire nation.

Dillon said he was excited for the opportunities the grant would provide the Health Sciences Center, WVU, West Virginia and the nation.

"We have received grants in the past years for science research but have never received an NIH grant this big, or that connects these many types of investigators," Dillon said. "This grant is really important. It will allow us to expand how we can support our sciences here at WVU to better tackle these important health problems. It is a huge campus effort, and there will be many other colleges across the country helping to contribute."