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The Health Frontier

Leading the One Health Initiative to Achieve Whole Health >>>

Changing the paradigm from a focus on disease and symptoms to one of whole health, integrating intersections of animal, environment, and human health and building in communities and systems to empower multifaceted well-being. 

The Nation’s First Pediatric Research Campus

The Children’s National Hospital’s clinical expertise combined with Virginia Tech’s leadership in engineering and technology, and its growing emphasis on biomedical research, will advance the development of treatment and cures to save children’s lives. The partnership provides an ecosystem that enables the acceleration of the translation of potential breakthrough discoveries into new treatments and technologies.

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A National Priority

Created more than 20 years ago to facilitate the study and evaluation of complementary and alternative health practices, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (has worked to advance the position that evidence-based complementary therapies should be “integrated” with and not used as an “alternative” to conventional medicine. The center’s strategic plan for fiscal years 2021–25 expands the definition of integrative health to include whole person health -- empowering individuals, families, communities, and populations to improve their health in multiple interconnected domains: biological, behavioral, social, and environmental. The plan has been informed and shaped by an effort to better define and map a path to whole person health by expanding and building on current activities while advancing new research strategies and ideas.

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How Do We Recall Faces and Names?

With a five-year, $2-million National Institutes of Health grant, Shannon Farris, assistant professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, is mapping out the diverse bioenergetic and molecular characteristics of CA2 neuronal circuits to learn more about how social memories are formed, stored, and forgotten.

Shannon Farris, assistant professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, recently received a $2-million National Institutes of Health grant to evaluate the molecular characteristics of the brain region that encodes social memories. (Photo by Clayton Metz for Virginia Tech)

Developing Countermeasures Against Emerging Infectious Diseases

Infectious diseases are constantly emerging and reemerging worldwide, causing immense threats to the health of humans, animals, and plants. To meet this challenge, Virginia Tech has created the Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens

X.J. Meng, the founding director of the Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens and University Distinguished Professor of Virology in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.

Health Research Areas

  • Aerosol Science
  • Air Quality
  • Addiction Recovery
  • Antibiotic Resistance
  • Applied Microbiology and the Microbiome
  • Atmospheric Science
  • Biomaterials
  • Biomechanics
  • Biomedical Imaging
  • Cancer
  • Cardiovascular Engineering
  • Cardiovascular Science
  • Children's Health
  • Climate Dynamics
  • Coastal Engineering
  • Disaster Resilience
  • Ecological Restoration
  • Environmental Modeling and Simulation
  • Environmental Data Analysis and Visualization
  • Food Safety
  • Freshwater Salinization
  • Health Behaviors
  • Invasive Species
  • Hazardous Waste Assessment and Treatment
  • Human Neuroscience
  • Infectious Disease
  • Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology
  • Pollution in Freshwater Systems
  • Psychology and Mental Health
  • Tissue Engineering
  • Water Health
  • Water Infrastructure
  • Water Treatment
  • Water Reuse and Recycle
  • Watersheds, Lake, and Reservoir Management
  • Water Supply
  • Vegetated coastal hydrodynamics
  • Viruses

 

Health Research Experts

From airborne transmitted diseases to greenhouse gas emissions, Virginia Tech faculty, students, and partners work together at the intersection of health science and technology disciplines.

Warren K. Bickel portrait.

Warren K. Bickel

Linsey Marr portrait.

Linsey Marr

XJ Meng portrait.

X.J. Meng

Karen Roberto portrait.

Karen Roberto

Virginia Tech Health Research Sponsors

Health Research Teams

Talented faculty and students are developing cutting edge research that is leading Virginia Tech’s rise as a global destination for health sciences and technology. Virginia Tech’s health sciences footprint is growing, connecting research to Virginia Tech campuses in the Washington D.C. metro area and  in Roanoke and Blacksburg, Virginia .

Health News

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