Search the GHTC website

Global health R&D delivers for West Virginia

US government investment in global health R&D has delivered

Amount
$396 thousand
to West Virginia research institutions
West Virginia's top USG-funded global health R&D institutions

West Virginia's top USG-funded global health R&D institutions

West Virginia University Research Corporation
$396 thousand
West Virginia industry in global health R&D

West Virginia industry in global health R&D

Novartis
Location(s): Huntington
Mylan
Location(s): Morgantown

West Virginia's top areas of global health R&D by USG funding

100%
Neglected tropical diseases
Kinetoplastids
Global health R&D at work in West Virginia

Researchers at West Virginia University are studying how the parasite that causes sleeping sickness interacts with the tsetse fly whose bite spreads the disease. Though the number of cases of sleeping sickness has dropped in recent years, the disease still poses a threat to millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Existing medicines can be toxic, even fatal, lending urgency to the development of new treatments. The researchers aim to understand why some tsetse flies carry the disease and others do not. They theorize that the gut bacteria in the flies affect whether the parasite survives in the fly and crosses over to humans and livestock, causing death, disability, and a heavy economic burden. A better understanding of the relationship between the fly and the parasite could open exciting new avenues for disease control.

Footnotes
  • Methodology
  • USG global health R&D investment to state research institutions/Top USG-funded global health R&D institutions: Authors' analysis of USG investment data from the G-FINDER survey, including funding for R&D for neglected diseases from 2007–2015 and for Ebola and select viral hemorrhagic fevers from 2014–2015. Reflects USG funding received by entities in state including academic and research institutions, product development partnerships, other nonprofits, select corporations, and government research institutions, as well as self-funding or other federal agency transfers received by federal agencies located in state; but excludes pharmaceutical industry data which is aggregated and anonymized in the survey for confidentiality purposes. See methodology for additional details.
  • Case study photo: Dean Calma/IAEA