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Tag: Virginia Commonwealth University

VCU raises $841.6M in record fundraising campaign

Virginia Commonwealth University announced Thursday it raised more than $841.6 million through its Make It Real Campaign — exceeding its goal of $750 million and marking the university’s largest campaign to date.

The campaign launched publicly in September 2016 after a silent period that began in 2012. It closed this June, a year after it had reached the $750 million goal.

“Donor support for the Make It Real Campaign for VCU is transforming the university and helping us continue to change lives in Richmond and beyond,” VCU President Michael Rao said in a statement. “Funds raised during this campaign will have an immeasurable impact on our students, our faculty and staff, our patients and our caregivers for years to come and, in turn, give them the opportunity to maximize their own as-yet unknown potential in the world.”

Through the fundraising, donors established 394 endowed scholarships and student support funds, 138 endowed chairs, professorships, faculty support and research funds. Funding also went to the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, the Inger Rice Lodge at the Rice Rivers Center and the new College of Health Professions building.

“Over 113,000 donors participated in the campaign, with 73,100 donating for the first time,”  Jay E. Davenport, VCU vice president for development and alumni relations, said in a statement. “Building those relationships provided the momentum to surpass our goal and reach levels of commitment beyond what we were told was possible.” 

 

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ODU, EVMS, Sentara name partnership executive director

Old Dominion University, Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) and Norfolk-based Sentara Healthcare announced Tuesday that Kevin Leslie has been named executive director of its new partnership, the Hampton Roads Biomedical Research Consortium (HRBRC).

The HRBRC was recently approved by Gov. Ralph Northam and the General Assembly with a goal of strengthening relationships among the three institutions and encouraging more health care research collaboration in Hampton Roads. 

“The state has commissioned a study to recommend the optimal structure for our partnership. But for now, the consortium’s first order of business is to mine the region’s vast collection of health care data — stripped of personal information,” Morris Foster, ODU vice president for research, said in a statement. “The resulting algorithms and applications could produce extensive benefits for our region, including wearable devices to monitor health and more pinpointed recommendations for patients.”

Leslie was most recently the associate director of VCU Ventures, a division of Virginia Commonwealth University that helps faculty and staff launch health care startup companies. 

“Kevin knows the biotech ecosystem in the commonwealth, and he’s well-versed in sources of funding opportunities, both on the public and private sides,” Foster said in a statement. “Under his direction, the consortium stands poised to build the biotech sector in Hampton Roads and catalyze more innovation.” 

Leslie earned his doctorate degree in biophysics from VCU and has worked as a senior scientist in the private sector.

“The HRBRC embodies what drives and excites me: the challenges of a startup, the pursuit of health equity, community building and working with diverse and talented people,” Leslie said in a statement. “The foundational pieces of a world-class pipeline are in place. Now, we finally have the opportunity to coordinate them in earnest.”

 

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Richmond braces for election impact

RICHMOND, Va. — Organizations and residents in Richmond are bracing for potential activity related to the U.S. presidential election results.

Richmond city officials said they will work with local and state partners to ensure public safety during and after the election.

“We encourage all residents to peacefully participate in our democracy and observe public health and public safety protocols in exercising their rights,” city officials said Monday in a statement.

Virginia Commonwealth University closed parking decks on Monroe Park Campus in Richmond from Monday night until Wednesday morning due to “potential activity on campus surrounding Election Day.” The closure excludes the West Main Street Parking Deck where temporary parking accommodations are available.

Protests have erupted around the nation, including Richmond, since May. Demonstrators called for social justice and police reform after George Floyd died in police custody. Floyd’s arrest was viewed around the world, with reaction to the officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for almost 8 minutes sparking months of protest. People also flooded the streets calling for justice in the shooting of Breonna Taylor, who died when police opened fire while serving a warrant. Those deaths and others fueled a sustained call for police and criminal justice reform that has transformed the election.

Richmond protests were less frequent in the fall. The initial weekend of protests after Floyd’s death saw widespread property damage throughout the city which included graffiti, broken windows and stolen property. An 8 p.m. curfew was established a few days later and Virginia State Police joined forces with local police. There were nights of clashes between demonstrators and officers. That’s left many people anticipating a strong reaction to the election, and some residents still expect civil unrest after a political rally Sunday at the area surrounding the Robert E. Lee monument.

Richmond City Council candidate Mike Dickinson led a “Trump Train 2” rally from Henrico County to Richmond, which ended with police investigating an unoccupied car struck by gunfire and a woman being pepper-sprayed. These caravans in support of President Donald Trump recently have been parading through areas around the nation ahead of the election.

Rumors have circulated that another “Trump Train” would head into the city on the evening of Election Day. Dickinson released a statement on Facebook that he and his supporters have nothing to do with it and he encouraged people to “keep the peace.”

“My campaign and I are not associated with any Trump Train event at all today and are not sponsoring any Trump Train event today,” the statement said. “We have shared everything we’ve found online about this potential event with the police.”

Richmond resident Isabelle Munnikhuysen heard the political rally from her apartment located on West Grace Street near the monument. “It definitely increased my fears about what tonight is going to be like,” Munnikhuysen said. “I feel more in danger.”

Many local businesses on West Broad Street situated remain boarded up due to damage from previous protests. But some businesses opted not to close on Election Day, a state holiday, and remained open regular hours.

“It is important for us to be ready and prepared,” said Lift Café manager Emily Nguyen. “But we just haven’t decided as a team what message [boarding up] sends.”

Va. allocates $116M CARES funding for higher ed

As public universities and medical centers have depleted previously allocated federal dollars, Gov. Ralph Northam is directing more than $116 million in federal CARES Act funding to higher education institutions in Virginia, the governor announced Tuesday.

Funding will go to public universities and medical centers in support of telework, distance learning, personal protective equipment, sanitization and cleaning materials as well as COVID-19 testing for students, staff and faculty.

“Virginia has some of the best colleges and universities in the nation, and they are working overtime to keep students, staff and faculty safe,” Northam said in a statement. “This additional $116 million in federal funding will go a long way towards closing COVID-related budget gaps at these institutions, and will ensure they can continue to provide a world-class education in the midst of this public health crisis.”

Of the new funding, approximately $115.6 million will go directly to institutions to cover previous and upcoming COVID-19-related expenses through Dec. 30. The Virtual Library of Virginia, a consortium of Virginia’s public and nonprofit libraries, will also receive $600,000 in funding to purchase educational films, documentaries and television programming for distance learning.

“College life looks very different in the age of COVID-19,” Secretary of Education Atif Qarni said in a statement. “We are proud to support the commonwealth’s colleges and universities as they work to protect the safety of their students, faculty, and communities, and continue to provide the high-quality education Virginia is known for.”

The five institutions receiving the largest funding are:

  • VCU Health System — $19.8 million
  • Virginia Tech — $13.2 million
  • University of Virginia — $11.1 million
  • Virginia Commonwealth University — $10.7 million
  • Virginia State University — $9.7 million

A complete list of the funding can be found here. 

 

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Labor market continues recovery in mid-October

Despite ongoing pandemic struggles, the labor market continued to improve during the week ending Oct. 17, but at a slower pace than at the start of the recovery, according to Virginia Commonwealth University and Arizona State University economists.

Early October saw 68.4% of working age adults employed, a more than 8% increase compared with April, according to the Real-Time Population Survey conducted by VCU assistant economics professor Adam Blandin and Arizona State associate economics professor Alexander Bick.

“The latest results show that, since April, employment has recovered two-thirds of the way back to the pre-pandemic level,” Blandin said in a statement. “In early October, 68.4% of working-age adults were employed. This is a large improvement compared to roughly 60% employment in April. But the current rate is still far below the 73.8% employment rate from February, just prior to the pandemic.” 

Findings from the most recent Real-Time Population Survey also indicate that earnings have increased when compared to the spring. Of those who were employed in February, 37.4% reported an earnings loss in early April, which declined to 27.2% during mid-October. This indicates that “some of the earnings losses suffered early on in the pandemic were temporary in nature,” according to the survey.

The survey also found that only two-thirds of those who were working in February are still working for the same employer, with the remaining third working for a different employer or are not employed.

The Real-Time Population Survey follows the methodology of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey, but releases results more frequently. The survey is conducted in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

 

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VCU received record $335M in research funding for 2020

Virginia Commonwealth University received a record $335 million in sponsored funding for research during fiscal year 2020 — an 8% increase from 2019, the university announced Wednesday.

“VCU’s ongoing commitment to its faculty, interdisciplinary research and investment in research infrastructure have translated into these record levels — which have grown by a third — over the past decade,” VCU President Michael Rao said in a statement. “I applaud our community of scholars, whose groundbreaking research has a tremendous positive impact on the human experience.”

Researchers at VCU’s Monroe Park and MCV campuses saw funding growth this year from federal, state, industry and private funding agencies, P. Srirama Rao, VCU’s vice president for research and innovation said in a statement. 

“Fiscal year 2020 translated into an outstanding year of accomplishments for VCU’s research community and our faculty and researchers are to be congratulated and recognized for their efforts,” Vice President Rao said in a statement. “Despite the many disruptions caused by the pandemic, they pressed forward with their research focused on VCU’s strategic initiatives of enriching our lives, achieving a just and equitable society, optimizing health and supporting sustainable energy and environments.”

The university received $169 million in total extramural federal funding, up 6% from last year, which includes nearly $92 million from the National Institutes of Health. VCU also saw increases in funding from the National Science Foundation, and the Departments of Education, Justice and Defense. Industry contributions rose by 26% to more than $37 million, which allowed for the university to begin clinical trials for COVID-19 therapies, such as remdesivir. The drug therapy was authorized by the FDA for emergency use on severe virus patients May 1, after 5-day and 10-day regimens proved successful at VCU and other hospitals.

VCU ranks as a top 100 research university based on research expenditures for nine consecutive years from the National Science Foundation. The university will also soon release an updated VCU Strategic Research Priorities Plan, which will outline growth planning for research at the university.

“In the coming weeks, we will share details about the proposal, developed by more than 90 faculty members, to implement our bold and ambitious plan,” Vice President Rao said in a statement. “This will serve as a framework to streamline investments leading to increased funding and growth, ultimately advancing excellence in research at VCU.”

 

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VCU College of Engineering receives $1M anonymous gift

An anonymous donor has made a $1 million gift to the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Engineering to provide funds for programming and support for international students, VCU announced Tuesday. 

Part of the gift will establish a global education and international student support fund (to be administered through VCU’s Global Education Office) and additional funding will go toward English language instruction programs, trip subsidies, tutoring, mentorship and financial aid.

“A gift like this is something that you dream about, so we want to be very thoughtful about how we use it,” Jill Blondin, executive director of the Global Education Office, said in a statement.

The VCU College of Engineering currently has 2,064 enrolled students, 149 of whom are international students, says VCU spokesperson Rebecca Jones. International students will also have input into other options for using the funding.

“These students have chosen — bravely — to come to another country to study,” Blondin said in a statement. “They are away from home, from family. What we see are needs for engagement and personal support. We want to help them participate fully in life at VCU.”

Another portion of the anonymous donor’s gift will establish the VCU College of Engineering Dean’s Excellence Fund for International Students, which may support activities such as a new student organization and 2021 celebrations of Thanksgiving and International Engineering Day.

“International students provide an important global perspective, whether they are undergraduates, pursuing graduate degrees or serving as postdoctoral fellows,” Barbara D. Boyan, the Alice T. and William H. Goodwin Jr. dean of VCU Engineering, said in a statement. “This gift makes it possible for us to help them find a home in the College of Engineering so that their contribution to the research and teaching mission of VCU can be realized.”

The anonymous donation will also support engineering professor Daren Chen’s mechanical and nuclear engineering research, according to a university statement.

 

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More Virginia colleges scrap traditional spring break

RICHMOND, Va. — A growing number of Virginia colleges are announcing that spring break will be canceled or modified in an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

Virginia Tech, located in Blacksburg, announced plans Monday. The biggest change is that the university will not have a week-long spring break. It will instead have five one-day breaks spaced throughout the semester.

“While we want to discourage travel that could aid in the spread of COVID-19, we don’t want to eliminate much needed downtime that students seek for their overall well-being,” Frank Shushok, vice president for student affairs at Tech, said in a news release.

Tech will hold a mix of in-person and hybrid classes. The latter will be fully online or a mix of online and in-person courses. The university did not modify the start and end of the spring semester. The university will begin classes on Jan. 19 and end on May 5. Exams will be held May 7-12.

Other Virginia universities have started to announce plans for the spring semester. George Mason University in Fairfax announced Monday plans to start classes on Jan. 25, one week later than originally planned. GMU will also be eliminating spring break. The university will hold a mix of in-person, online, and hybrid classes, and will end classes as originally scheduled on April 30, followed by final exams.

Radford University in Radford will start classes on Jan. 19 as originally planned and hold spring break at the end of the semester, concluding classes a week early. Classes will be a mix of in-person and hybrid format and end on April 23. Exams will be held the following week.

Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond announced last week that it will start the semester a week later than originally planned. VCU will hold two one-day breaks; one in February and one in March. The university will offer in-person and online classes or a mixture of both formats.

“This measure is consistent with many other universities in Virginia and across the country,” VCU President Michael Rao said in an email announcing the move.

Christopher Newport University in Newport News announced a tentative spring 2021 academic calendar on Oct. 7, which includes a shortened, two-day spring break in March. Classes at CNU will begin on Jan. 11 and final exams will end April 29.

Many Virginia colleges have not announced their spring semester plans. The University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville, will announce plans later this month, UVA spokesman McGregor McCance said last week.

Capital News Service is a program of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students in the program provide state government coverage for a variety of media outlets in Virginia.

 

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VCU study: COVID-19 accounted for 67% of March-Aug. U.S. deaths

For every two deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the U.S., a third American dies as a result of the pandemic, according to a study led by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The study shows that deaths between March 1 and Aug. 1 increased by 20% when compared to previous years — but deaths attributed to COVID-19 accounted for only 67% of those deaths.

“Contrary to skeptics who claim that COVID-19 deaths are fake or that the numbers are much smaller than we hear on the news, our research and many other studies on the same subject show quite the opposite,” lead author Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of VCU’s Center on Society and Health, said in a statement.

State reopening policies in April and May could have fueled the June and July surges, according to the study. 

“The high death counts in Sun Belt states show us the grave consequences of how some states responded to the pandemic and sound the alarm not to repeat this mistake going forward,” Woolf said in a statement.

COVID-19 reporting delays could have to do with the gap between reported coronavirus deaths and all unexpected deaths, according to the study. It could also be led by miscoding or other data limitations. 

“Some people who never had the virus may have died because of disruptions caused by the pandemic,” Woolf said in a statement. “These include people with acute emergencies, chronic diseases like diabetes that were not properly care for, or emotional crises that led to overdoses or suicides.” 

The study showed increases in deaths from dementia, heart disease and Alzheimer’s. Woolf also says early death rates related to cancer may also have increased due to treatments being disrupted during the pandemic. It also stated that long-term conditions such as diabetes and emotional health issues could be compromised in the long term.

States such as New York and New Jersey, which were hit hard during the early months of the pandemic, were able to bring down death rates in less than 10 weeks, while states such as Texas, Florida and Arizona, which avoided an early hit, experienced a summer surge that lasted 16 to 17 weeks after. 

“We can’t prove causally that the early reopening of those states led to the summer surges. But it seems quite likely,” Woolf said in a statement. “And most models predict our country will have more excess deaths if states don’t take more assertive approaches in dealing with community spread. The enforcement of mask mandates and social distancing is really important if we are to avoid these surges and major loss of life.”

The study was conducted using data from March to Aug. 1 and builds on a previous JAMA article by the same authors. Authors of the study included Derek Chapman, Latoya Hill, DaShaunda Taylor and Roy Sabo from VCU, as well as Daniel Weinberger from Yale University.

“This isn’t a pandemic involving a single virus,” Dr. Peter Buckley, dean of the VCU School of Medicine, said in a statement. “This is a public health crisis with broad and lasting ripple effects. VCU researchers have been diligent in their investigations into both treatment of COVID-19 and in understanding the long-term repercussions of the pandemic, so that fellow doctors, policymakers and community members can fight these battles on multiple fronts.”

 

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VCU scientists studying cancer drug as COVID-19 treatment

A group of scientists at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Massey Cancer Center discovered that an experimental cancer drug keeps the virus that causes COVID-19 from infecting cells and replicating. Their findings were published Monday in the Biochemical Pharmacology journal and will be tested in a clinical trial at VCU Health.

AR-12 has been studied as an anti-cancer and antiviral drug in Massey researcher Paul Dent’s lab, and Dent and others have found that the oral medication is effective against Zika, mumps, measles, drug-resistant HIV and the flu, according to a news release from VCU. Laurence Booth of VCU and Jonathan O. Rayner of the University of South Alabama have studied the drug’s use in treating patients with COVID-19. They found it is “highly effective” against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID.

Dent’s team also found that people of non-European descent, particularly those of African ancestry, make one type of protein, while people of European descent make a variant. This difference may explain why African American people are more prone to serious cases of COVID-19, although Dent cautioned that the observation is not conclusive. “It provides a biomarker that could be evaluated to help explain why some people get more severe illness than others,” he said in a statement.

“AR-12 works in a unique way,” added Dent, the chair of Massey’s Cancer Cell Signaling research program and a professor at VCU’s biochemistry and molecular biology department. “Unlike any other antiviral drug, it inhibits cellular chaperones, which are proteins that are required to maintain the right 3D shape of viral proteins. The shape of the virus is critical to its ability to infect and replicate.”

Dr. Andrew Poklepovic, a medical oncologist and medical director of Massey’s Clinical Trials Office, is leading the effort to start a clinical trial. In prior trials for other diseases, the medication was “safe and tolerable” to patients, Poklepovic said in a statement. Unlike most other COVID-19 drugs, which are given intravenously, AR-12 is taken orally and could be used for outpatient therapy, he said.

The Food and Drug Administration must give its approval to test the drug on COVID patients, and VCU is in talks with a drug company to manufacture enough of the medication for the trial. C19 Therapeutics, a group of entrepreneurs gathered by Massey’s associate director for basic research, Said Sebti, has recently licensed AR-12 from VCU to raise funds in support of clinical trial sponsorship.

“We are working to submit the required information for FDA approvals, and we are also in discussions with a local pharmaceutical company to manufacture the drug for the trial,” Sebti said in a statement. “We are hopeful that AR-12 will emerge as a treatment option for patients suffering from COVID-19, ultimately saving lives and contributing to the global pandemic solution.”

Other potential treatments for COVID-19 have gotten accelerated approval for testing on humans through the Coronavirus Treatment Acceleration Program.

 

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