October 03, 2023, Laura Morris
The Palmetto State — facing physician and nursing shortages, an aging population and a growing number of children requiring welfare services — is partnering with universities and organizations to recruit and retain students interested in health care careers by reducing financial barriers.
October 02, 2023, Rebekah Friedman
Through her job as director of behavioral health initiatives and workforce development at the South Carolina Office of Rural Health, Jessica Seel is doing the high-impact work she dreamed of when she came to USC for her master’s in public health.
October 01, 2023, Page Ivey
Alicia Flach uses the same technique to teach her physical therapy students as she uses to help her patients — a science-based system of learning and reflection that allows them to adapt to new information in the rapidly developing field.
September 26, 2023
Researchers at the University of South Carolina understand both the benefits and the challenges of getting people to exercise — as well as the societal repercussions when they don’t. And they are developing solutions to increase physical activity to the benefit of us all.
September 26, 2023, Gregory Hardy
Pharmacy professor Patricia H. Fabel explains the phenylephrine fallout and offers guidance on the FDA's vote ruling it ineffective as an oral over-the-counter cold medicine ahead of the 2023 cold and flu season.
September 22, 2023, Rebekah Friedman
Most pharmacists will eventually care for a child, even if they don’t specialize in pediatrics. Clinical associate professor Christina Cox is on a mission to teach them how.
September 20, 2023, Hannah Cambre
The Global Health in Costa Rica program is a three-week Maymester program for public health students, designed to immerse students in Costa Rican culture and the Spanish language while giving them real-world exposure to a universal health care system.
September 19, 2023, Page Ivey
In May, the University of South Carolina announced that it will invest $10 million over the next four years in five new interdisciplinary research institutes that will address some of the Palmetto State’s biggest challenges, including health, education and water quality. USC Today talked with Vice President for Research Julius Fridriksson about the genesis and goals of the initiative.
September 15, 2023, Laura Morris
USC School of Medicine Greenville was one of the first schools in the country to integrate Emergency Medical Technician training and certification into its first-year medical curriculum. Program director Dr. Elizabeth Mannion takes us behind the scenes to explain what students learn and how those skills are applied throughout medical school and in the real world.
September 13, 2023, Laura Morris
For families and organizations that participate in youth sports, it’s important to recognize the risks and harms of concussions and brain injuries. USC clinical assistant professor of pediatrics, Dr. Jeff Holloway, breaks down concussion basics for caregivers, including symptoms, recovery time and when to see a physician.
September 07, 2023, Dan Cook
It takes a lot of work on the part of chemistry professor Micky Myrick to give students the individualized attention they need to succeed. But it’s true to form for the 2023 Mungo Graduate Teaching Award recipient — because when it comes to teaching, Myrick does whatever it takes.
August 30, 2023, Lauryn Jiles
The university never sleeps, but it does slow down a bit during the summer. With the start of the fall semester, here’s a reminder of some recent happenings that you might have missed, plus a heads up about some major upcoming events.
August 29, 2023, Chris Horn
A sleep promotion intervention program from the Arnold School of Public Health aims to give parents much-needed tools to help their children get the sleep they need during the busy school year.
August 18, 2023, Dana Woodward
The University of South Carolina Board of Trustees met on Friday (Aug. 18). Here’s a look at the actions that occurred during the meeting.
June 08, 2023, Megan Sexton
Robert Best, a medical geneticist and professor at the USC School of Medicine Greenville, has been a major contributor to the fields of cytogenetics and bioethics. Last fall, Best was tapped to serve as interim CEO of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics.
May 22, 2023, Megan Sexton
At the University of South Carolina’s Aging Brain Cohort, researchers from across the university are exploring how people’s brain health changes as they get older.
May 22, 2023, Chris Horn
Nearly 50 years ago, exercise science professor Russ Pate began research on encouraging children to be more physically active. The data that he and other researchers were seeing back then turned out to be a harbinger of today’s crisis of obesity and physical inactivity among children and adolescents.
May 19, 2023, Chris Horn
One in five youth and young adults with diabetes in the U.S. lives in a household with limited or uncertain availability of nutritional food, a precarious situation that makes coping with diabetes difficult. Arnold School of Public Health researchers are learning more about this special population and are planning an intervention study to help.
May 16, 2023
Growing up in a poor area of North Georgia, Melissa Nolan saw the negative effects infectious disease could have on a community – and after working in Latin America, she saw how infectious disease interventions could mitigate these kinds of effects. At USC, the assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics is combining her domestic and foreign research interests for maximum impact.
May 16, 2023, Rebekah Friedman
Aphasia is a language disorder that can occur after a stroke. It is especially prevalent in South Carolina, which has one of the highest stroke rates in the nation. Researchers at C-STAR — USC’s Center for the Study of Aphasia Recovery — are working to better understand it.
May 12, 2023, Communications and Marketing
The University of South Carolina will invest $10 million over the next four years in five new interdisciplinary research institutes that will address some of the Palmetto State’s biggest challenges, including health, education and water quality.
April 27, 2023
Russell Pate, a public health professor and director of the Children's Physical Activity Research Group, played a key role in SC FitnessGram, a project led by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control that aims to evaluate and improve health-related fitness among public school students.
April 19, 2023, Téa Smith
When Lee Patterson earned her master’s in social work from the University of South Carolina in 2012, she never imagined putting it to use at Richland Library — or any library. But 10 years later, she is doing exactly what she set out to do when she entered the field: help people.
April 14, 2023
Daniela Friedman grew up watching her mother suffer with cancer and struggle to make sense of the complicated information she received about her diagnosis and treatment plan. Today, that experience drives Friedman’s efforts to improve how health information is communicated to older and diverse populations.
April 13, 2023
Jessica Klusek’s work focuses on communication difficulties associated with the FMR1 premutation — the genetic mutation found in women who are carriers of fragile X syndrome. Fragile X syndrome is the most common genetic cause of intellectual disability and autism.
April 11, 2023
Peiyin Hung joined USC’s Arnold School of Public Health in 2018 after a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University. An assistant professor of health services policy and management, Hung explores maternal health and rural health disparities.
April 06, 2023
Today’s pharmacists are key to fighting the spread of infectious disease, administering vaccines for everything from COVID-19 to shingles. College of Pharmacy assistant professor Tessa Hastings is on a mission to improve how they do that.
April 05, 2023, Chris Horn
Robert Hock, a USC's College of Social Work professor, is heading an NIH-funded study to assist parents of children recently diagnosed on the autism spectrum. The project deploys autism parent navigators experienced in finding and using resources for children on the autism spectrum to serve as guides for uninitiated parents.
March 28, 2023, Megan Sexton
April Cone, the dean of the University of South Carolina Salkehatchie, plays a key role in her community — a region where she has lived her entire life.
March 28, 2023
Neuroscientist Roozbeh Behroozmand directs the Speech Neuroscience Lab in the Arnold School of Public Health, which examines the neural bases of speech and its disorders in people with neurological conditions.
March 24, 2023, Megan Sexton
The struggle to find recruits who can meet physical fitness and weight requirements to begin military training is a costly dilemma – in terms of national security, military readiness and dollars needed to treat injured trainees.
March 16, 2023, Emily Miles
Described as a visionary leader and a passionate educator, Meera Narasimhan, M.D., has been at the forefront of telehealth in South Carolina. Her passion for addressing disparities in health care delivery and her advocacy for mental health awareness have led Narasimhan to a leadership role in medicine in the state.
February 21, 2023
Lexington Medical Center and the University of South Carolina broke ground on a new building to train nurses on the hospital campus in West Columbia. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on Tuesday, Feb. 21.
February 20, 2023, Page Ivey
Business professor Luv Sharma’s research focus on process management and improvement may sound like an unlikely match for helping kidney transplant patients, but his experience and expertise were the perfect combination for creating an intervention for a major U.S. hospital over three years (2013-16).
February 17, 2023, Megan Sexton
Researchers from the College of Engineering and Computing and the Arnold School of Public Health are studying how a person’s walking speed affects health and well being.
February 14, 2023
The University of South Carolina is focused on the brain. From autism and aphasia to Alzheimer’s and other related dementias, university researchers are working across several academic disciplines to better understand how the brain works and to develop solutions that will improve people’s health.
February 09, 2023, Nicole Meares
Gayenell Magwood focuses on community research and engagement, cardiometabolic risk and prevention, and cancer control and prevention. She is an endowed professor of nursing and is also passionate about her involvement with the American Heart Association and raising awareness for heart disease and stroke.
January 26, 2023, Kyndel Lee
Miss USA Morgan Romano knows all too well that only 28% of the STEM workforce is made up of women, and she's using her platform to spark interests in young girls and help create a pipeline for more women to purse careers in the STEM fields.
January 20, 2023, Megan Sexton
For the third straight year, the University of South Carolina’s College of Nursing is ranked No. 1 nationally for its online graduate nursing program, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual online programs rankings released Jan. 24.
January 06, 2023, Page Ivey
James Cook took a circuitous route to being a doctor — one that included stops as a commercial fisherman, shoe salesman and high school biology teacher before going to medical school. His experiences helped inform his practice as an OB/GYN and as a clinical professor.
December 13, 2022, Dan Cook
The University of South Carolina has selected Gilbane to lead the planning, design, development and construction of the university’s health sciences campus in the BullStreet District in downtown Columbia, South Carolina. The initial engagement with Gilbane was presented to the Board of Trustees at its Dec. 13 meeting.
November 30, 2022, Kyndel Lee
USC researcher Melissa Moss has studied Alzheimer's disease for decades, and she's coming closer to finding medicines that will help patients keep their memories longer.
November 18, 2022, Megan Sexton
A USC alumnus who is an athletic trainer for the University of Tennessee football team donated life-saving blood stem cells, which were used to save the life of a South Carolina Board of Trustees member.
November 10, 2022, Craig Brandhorst
Assistant professor of pharmacy Alessandra Porcu has brought her research interests — and a $1 million, five-year NIH grant — to USC’s Department of Drug Discovery & Biomedical Sciences, where she is studying the effects of environmental light on circadian rhythm and mental health.
November 10, 2022
It’s no secret that South Carolina faces a litany of health care challenges, and that these challenges hit especially hard in rural areas. With its comprehensive portfolio of health science and health care offerings, the University of South Carolina is well positioned to help. Here are some of the ways in which university researchers and graduates are working to advance the health of South Carolina residents.
November 10, 2022, Téa Smith
Scholarship recipient and graduate student Kayla Lee has seen firsthand the effect lack of access to quality health care can have on a community. She is happy to be furthering her career in nursing and helping to create accessible quality health care throughout the state.
November 08, 2022, Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti
Immunologists Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti write for The Conversation on how the immune system reacts during infections, vaccinations and autoimmune diseases where the body starts attacking itself.
October 31, 2022, Rebekah Friedman
College of Pharmacy assistant professor Tessa Hastings and her research team are working to pinpoint the factors that prevent pharmacists from recording and recommending vaccines.
October 20, 2022, Megan Sexton
Researchers from across the University of South Carolina are working together to find answers to the many pieces of the autism puzzle. A new center takes a multidisciplinary approach to better understand neuro-developmental disorders.
October 12, 2022, Margaret Gregory
College of Pharmacy professor Eugenia Broude had personal inspiration to pursue a career in science, and a newly awarded $3 million R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute will allow Broude and her co-investigators to continue their work in a groundbreaking area of breast cancer research.
October 03, 2022, Craig Brandhorst
Julius Fridriksson loves a challenge. After climbing to the top of his field — and building out a research team of more than 40 faculty, post docs and graduate students at the Arnold School of Public Health — the onetime first-generation college student from a small village in Iceland agreed to become USC’s interim vice president for research in 2021.
October 03, 2022, Kyndel Lee
The University of South Carolina’s Columbia and Upstate campuses are recipients of an investment in scholarships by Prisma Health to help counter the state’s critical nursing shortage.
August 16, 2022, Sajish Mathew
Many drugs have the same atoms and bonds but are arranged differently in space. These drugs are called chiral compounds — meaning they exist as two mirror images. Sajish Mathew writes for The Conversation on how these compounds are arranged in space can drastically change the effects they have in the body.
August 10, 2022, Chris Horn
School of Medicine scientist Jason Kubinak studies beneficial interaction between human gut and environmental microbes, exploring basic questions about the nature of harmful viruses and bacteria and how immune response has evolved to control them.
August 01, 2022, Ismaeel Yunusa
While doctors prescribe the opioid oxycodone to treat moderate to severe pain after surgeries and injuries, it can also become a common drug of abuse. Professor Ismaeel Yunusa writes for The Conversation on how taking oxycodone at the same time as certain antidepressants can increase the risk of opioid overdose.
July 07, 2022, Chris Horn
It’s the unspoken fear of new parents — having a child born with a disfiguring birthmark that can mean a lifetime of medical procedures and emotional challenges. Wenbin Tan, a professor of cell biology and anatomy at the School of Medicine Columbia, has devoted much of his research to a congenital neurovascular malformation called Port Wine Stain.
July 05, 2022, Kyndel Lee
The University of South Carolina College of Nursing and Lexington Medical Center have partnered to build a state-of-the-art nursing simulation lab and teaching space to provide clinical training for UofSC’s growing nursing student population.
June 28, 2022, Prakash Nagarkatti, Mitzi Nagarkatti
As COVID-19 vaccines continue to be effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths, many people have found themselves unsure whether to wait on new, updated formulations of the COVID-19 vaccines or to mix and match combinations of the original vaccine strains. School of Medicine Columbia professors Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti write for The Conversation on whether you should get a COVID-19 booster now or wait until fall.
June 28, 2022, Kyndel Lee
UofSC alumna Taylor Wilson is playing a major role in advancing South Carolina's efforts in advocacy for support of the Alzheimer's cause at both the state and federal levels.
June 23, 2022, Page Ivey
Exercise science researcher and professor Sara Wilcox has been working for 20 years to improve the health of South Carolina residents.
June 20, 2022, Megan Sexton
Health problems associated with eating too much or moving too little are nothing new. But researcher Christine Pellegrini is using updated techniques and technology to track and try to help change behaviors and improve outcomes.
June 14, 2022, Chris Horn
Bacteriophages are viruses that attack specific bacteria and were discovered a century ago. Phage cocktails, which combine several types of phages, could be administered on a broader scale and diminish the need for antibiotics.
May 20, 2022, Alexis Watts
Spring break normally means a time for University of South Carolina students to say goodbye to hard work and relax for a week, but for the past 10 years, hundreds of students from the Capstone Scholars program have chosen to challenge themselves culturally.
May 16, 2022, Kyndel Lee
UofSC Beaufort student shares her story as a sex trafficking survivor as part of her healing process and to raise awareness. The human services major hopes to become a counselor to help other survivors.
May 06, 2022, Kyndel Lee
Khadija Kakar knows what it's like to grow up in poverty. But she beat the odds and is working to ensure other women in her home country get the same opportunities for education.
May 02, 2022, Chris Horn
In 14 years at the University of South Carolina, Michael Beets has notched an enviable record of research productivity — more than 200 publications, a Google Scholar h-index of 50 with nearly 12,000 citations while serving as principal investigator on seven large NIH grants and associate director of an NIH-sponsored Center of Biomedical Research Excellence.
April 25, 2022, Carol J.G. Ward
Alumna Lorri Unumb's journey to becoming an advocate for families affected by autism began when she and her husband Dan noticed their son Ryan wasn’t behaving and developing like other children. Ryan was diagnosed with autism shortly before his second birthday. Today, Unumb is internationally known for her advocacy.
April 21, 2022, Communications and Marketing
An Honors College student from Lexington, South Carolina, Laura-Louise Rice is earning her Bachelor of Arts and Science (BARSC) in medical humanities and public policy. She has served in many capacities in Student Government, been an orientation and peer leader as well as taken on leadership roles in her business fraternity and social sorority. For her efforts over four years at the University of South Carolina, Rice received the 2022 Steven N. Swanger Award, the university’s second-highest undergraduate honor
April 19, 2022, Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti
As mRNA vaccines used in the U.S. against COVID-19 have been successful at preventing hospitalization and death, the vaccines have failed to provide long-term protective immunity to prevent breakthrough infections. School of Medicine Columbia professors Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti write for The Conversation on the COVID-19 booster and retooling existing vaccines to increase the duration of protection.
April 06, 2022, Chris Horn
Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that Earth’s rising temperatures and related phenomena — more frequent and severe drought, flooding and wildfires — are a result of human-caused climate change. Scientists who earned their Ph.D.s from South Carolina are applying their expertise to help corporations adopt more eco-friendly approaches to doing business and developing more equitable policies for coastal land use.
March 22, 2022, Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti
The COVID-19 omicron variant has been the predominant source of rising infections around the world. BA.2 is the latest subvariant of omicron and is spreading quickly in many countries. School of Medicine Columbia professors, Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti, write for The Conversation on this new strain, if there will be another surge in the U.S. and how to protect yourself.
March 17, 2022, Megan Sexton
As a Ph.D. student in the College of Nursing, Chigozie Nkwonta studied cervical cancer prevention, with the goal to increase HPV vaccinations and cervical cancer screenings in her home country of Nigeria.
March 14, 2022, Chris Horn
Three scientists who earned their graduate degrees from South Carolina are studying how climate change — particularly sea level rise, drought and flooding — affect the state’s coastal resources.
February 02, 2022, Page Ivey
Founded in 2015 by School of Medicine Columbia faculty member Dr. Rajeev Bais, the Carolina Survivor Clinic provides medical care and emotional support for traumatized refugees from violence in countries around the world.
February 01, 2022, Prakash Nagarkatti, Mitzi Nagarkatti
The characteristics of the COVID-19 omicron variant has many people wondering if it could act as a vaccine of sorts, inoculating enough people to effectively bring about herd immunity. School of Medicine Columbia professors Prakash Nagarkatti and Mitzi Nagarkatti write for The Conversation about immune response to COVID-19.
January 27, 2022, Allen Wallace
Many things have changed since the annual Global Ranking of Sport Science Schools and Departments debuted in 2016, but one constant remains: the University of South Carolina is No. 1 in the nation.
January 26, 2022, Office of Communications and Public Affairs; Photos by Kim Truett
Four University of South Carolina researchers have been elected as fellows in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a distinguished group of scientists, engineers and innovators.
January 26, 2022, Abe Danaher
The university’s interprofessional education program allows future social workers, pharmacists, nurses, doctors and others to step outside their educational siloes and engage their future colleagues in meaningful conversation.
January 24, 2022, Megan Sexton
The University of South Carolina’s College of Nursing retained the No. 1 national ranking for its online graduate nursing program, according to U.S. News and World Report’s annual online program rankings released Tuesday (Jan. 25).
January 18, 2022, Bryan Gentry
As president of the American Medical Association, Gerald Harmon, a University of South Carolina physics graduate, sees a path to progress as he leads America’s medical community through a pandemic.
January 11, 2022, Page Ivey
Helping develop and inspire pharmacy leaders is the goal of the Walker Leadership Scholars Program at the University of South Carolina’s College of Pharmacy, says program founder Donna Walker (1979 pharmacy, 1984 MBA). Each year, the competitive program selects two high-capacity students from the first-year pharmacy class to be scholars for three consecutive years.
December 21, 2021
Melissa Weisberg, a medical student at the School of Medicine Greenville, knew at 14 years old that she wanted to be a doctor. Now, as a second-year medical student, she’s already been able to work directly with patients by volunteering at the Greenville Free Medical Clinic.
December 09, 2021, Lorne J. Hofseth
Many of the colors that make up candy canes, sugar cookies and even cranberry sauce and roast ham are synthetic. Pharmacy professor, Lorne J. Hofseth, writes for The Conversation that there is evidence that these ultra-processed foods may trigger early-onset colorectal cancer.
December 09, 2021, Oluwafemi Adeago and Xiaoming Li
Barriers such as stigma, homophobia, poverty, access, distrust of the medical system and misinformation make Southern Black gay men less likely to use antiretroviral treatments to prevent HIV infection use, Oluwafemi Adeago and Xiaoming Li, Arnold School of Public Health, write for The Conversation.
December 08, 2021, Mollie Roe
At the College of Nursing, Gabs Amster used her personal journey to a healthy lifestyle to connect and empathize with her patients. After graduation this month, she will begin her career as a registered nurse in a critical care unit.
December 06, 2021, Megan Sexton
Mallory Dixon excelled on the volleyball court and in the classroom. She will graduate this month with a master’s degree in exercise science from the Arnold School of Public Health.
December 02, 2021, Chris Horn
When Robert McKeever and a colleague launched a smartphone usage study in 2017, they timed it to coincide with an update of Apple’s iOS that for the first time tracked weekly screen time.
November 16, 2021, Megan Sexton
As the country marks Rural Health Day this week, the University of South Carolina works — through its School of Medicine, College of Nursing, Arnold School of Public Health and other areas — to understand and improve the delivery of health care in rural and underserved communities.
November 11, 2021, Page Ivey
For the past year, public health researchers at the University of South Carolina and other colleges across the state have worked to provide information about COVID-19’s impact in communities and what people are thinking about the disease, testing and vaccinations.
November 02, 2021, Page Ivey
University of South Carolina alumna Ebony Toussaint joined the university as a faculty member this fall, working with the Rural and Minority Health Research Center in the Arnold School of Public Health. One of her first research projects will be a study of how evictions impact mental health, on which she will work with her husband, Etienne Toussaint, who is a new law professor.
October 04, 2021
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The University of South Carolina has a number of faculty members who are available to offer their expertise in breast cancer stories. To coordinate an interview, contact the staff member listed with each expert entry.
July 21, 2021, David Lee
The Arnold School of Public Health set a school record for research funding last fiscal year (2020-21), enabling faculty to conduct impactful research and continue to gain national recognition for their work.
July 15, 2021, Megan Sexton
Researchers at the Arnold School of Public Health are using big data to answer important questions about COVID-19 in South Carolina.
July 14, 2021, Craig Brandhorst
Tapped to head the new Cardiovascular Translational Research Center at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in early 2020, Clinton Webb arrived just in time for lockdown. So, how did he get the blood pumping?
June 29, 2021, Abe Danaher
Julie Sease has been selected as the interim dean of the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy, effective July 1. She succeeds Stephen Cutler, who was announced as South Carolina’s interim provost.
June 24, 2021, Megan Sexton
Black Girls in Social Work, an organization created by alumna Bodequia Simon, helps more than 20,000 members around the country network and learn about the profession.
June 18, 2021, Chris Horn
Pooyan Jamshidi, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering, is a principal investigator on a three-year $500,000 NSF collaborative grant to develop the intelligence and computing capabilities for a smart device dubbed SmartSight. The platform will enable on-device artificial intelligence to improve real-time perception for blind and visually-impaired users.
June 17, 2021, Chris Woodley
Teri Browne has been named interim dean of the College of Social Work, effective Aug. 1. She succeeds Ronald Pitner, who has served as interim dean since April 2020.
May 25, 2021, Franklin G. Berger
Colorectal cancer remains a major source of cancer incidence and mortality worldwide. The American Cancer Society recently estimated that in 2021, there will be 149,500 new cases of colorectal cancer and 52,980 deaths in the U.S. alone. In The Conversation, Franklin G. Berger, professor emeritus in biological sciences, writes about two significant developments that could save lives.
May 25, 2021, Chris Horn
Demetrius Abshire has made plenty of hay in the field of rural health research in the four years since he joined the College of Nursing faculty.