Innovation and Research

Robin Brooks, assistant professor of Africana Studies, is co-editing a journal issue that looks at protests, violence and COVID-19 through the lens of Black female literary giants. Members of the Pitt community and beyond are encouraged to submit work for the issue by July 31.

Ensuring that the vulnerable and isolated get medical care is as important as ever. Enter Jim Withers (MED ’84), founder of the Street Medicine Institute.

When it comes to data on COVID-19, there are disparities between what information states are recording and reporting—especially when it comes to race. Utibe Essien, an assistant professor in the School of Medicine, explains why racial data is so important to track.

The 2020 Pitt Seed Grant winners span departments, Community Engagement Centers and regional campuses in subjects as varied as dependent care, STEM research and National Science Foundation grant preparation. The program, now in its third year, supports projects that align with the six goals in The Plan for Pitt.

Carey Balaban from the School of Medicine led a study into a curious 2016 case concerning U.S. diplomats in Havana, Cuba, and their families, who had mysterious symptoms including dizziness, ear pain and tinnitus. The researchers found marked differences between the patterns of response of those embassy staffers and victims of other mild, traumatic brain injuries.

Steven Moon, a doctoral student in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Science's Department of Music, studies musical healing in Turkish biomedical research and investigates how humans understand health.

Federal funding is an important part of supporting research and innovation in universities. Pitt’s Evan Facher describes how the novel coronavirus could change the equation.

Five behemoth next-generation sequencers, which look more or less like photocopiers, as well as a series of robotic arms have sequenced more than 10,000 samples since the UPMC Genome Center opened in 2018. Read about what this means for research and for patient care.

Dmitriy Babichenko in the School of Computing and Information joined forces with colleagues from the Schools of Pharmacy and Nursing, as well as the Department of English and UPMC, to develop two games for kids to learn about health.

COVID-19 can affect more than the lungs: some patients also leave the hospital with muscle weakness, heart problems and trouble swallowing. Three researchers from Pitt’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences discuss how their field can help in recovery.