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.

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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

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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
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

Linsey Marr

X.J. Meng

Karen Roberto

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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 .

Addiction Recovery Research Center

Affective Neurodynamics and Development Lab

Applied Interdisciplinary Research in Air

Biotechnology Laboratory

Cancer Research Group

Center for Coastal Studies

Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens

Center for Engineered Health

Center for Environmental Analytics and Remote Sensing

Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation

Center for Geospatial Information Technology

Center for Gerontology

Center for Health Behaviors Research

Center for Human-Computer Interaction

Center for Humanities

Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability

CENTER FOR NEUROBIOLOGY RESEARCH

CENTER FOR HUMAN NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH

Center for Public Health Practices and Research

CENTER FOR VASCULAR AND HEART RESEARCH

Conservation Management Institute

Global Change Center

Human Integrative Physiology Lab

John Little Research Group

NATIONAL PEDIATRIC REHABILITATION RESOURCE CENTER

NEUROMOTOR RESEARCH CLINIC

Occoquan Watershed Monitoring Laboratory

Physical Activity Research and Community Implementation Laboratory

Pruden Laboratory

Translational Plant Sciences Center

VIRGINIA TECH SCHIFFERT HEALTH CENTER MOLECULAR DIAGNOSTICS LAB

Work Stress and Recovery Lab

Health News

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Virginia Tech drug researcher receives $2.2 million NIH grant to further develop ‘fat burning’ molecule , article
Webster Santos, a professor of chemistry in the College of Science, has received a $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to further his recent research with mitochondrial uncouplers - small "fat burning" molecules that could be used to help treat NASH.
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Virginia Tech scientists see fluid flow as potential key to fight Alzheimer's disease , article
The National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded Jennifer Munson, associate professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and a team of Virginia Tech scientists $3.57 million to test the impact of fluid flow in the brain on development of Alzheimer's disease.
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Virginia Tech researchers receive a $2 million NIH grant to develop Zika virus vaccine , article
Zika virus outbreaks have now been recorded throughout Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, South America, and Central America.
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Researcher receives NIH grant to study noninvasive treatment for metastatic breast tumors , article
The aim of this project is to develop a novel, noninvasive method that combines nanoparticles with ultrasound to selectively target and kill cancerous cells in the breast tissue.