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Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute

The Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute is managed by Virginia Tech in close collaboration with Carilion Clinic and the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.

   

Kyle Creamer, who operates Virginia Tech's Bone, Osteoporosis, Nutrition, and Exercise (BONE) Lab, conducts a 3D (cross-sectional) bone scan on Katrina Butner's leg using the pQCT (peripheral quantitative computed tomography machine) as Professor Bill Herbert views the images. Kyle Creamer, who operates Virginia Tech's Bone, Osteoporosis, Nutrition, and Exercise (BONE) Lab, conducts a 3D (cross-sectional) bone scan on Katrina Butner's leg using the pQCT (peripheral quantitative computed tomography machine) as Professor Bill Herbert views the images.

Our Mission

The research institute will be a premier institute of interdisciplinary and translational research within the medical sciences; will facilitate discovery-based medical education; and will work to sustain and strengthen the Virginia Tech - Carilion partnership as the Carilion Clinic develops into a research-empowered provider of health care services.

Potential Target Areas for Research Emphasis

We expect that research initially will align with areas of strength and active research programs at Virginia Tech. These areas include inflammation, infectious disease, neuroscience, and cardiovascular science and cardiology.

Critical platform technologies

The Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute will also develop, refine, and use for research and instruction a number of critical platform technologies, including bioimaging and data management.

  • Bioimaging: Technological improvements in imaging are allowing scientists to see and manipulate living material, such as tissue, cells, and proteins. Scientists can study proteins, their functions, and their interactions, such as with a pathogen; can deliver medicine to disease sites, even within cells; and can see within the body in 3D without entering the body.
  • Data management: High performance computing is making it possible to capture more information, to discover and analyze complex interactions, and even to visualize previously unknown patterns and processes in living systems, such as networks of neural interactions or how proteins move within cells. Scientists can collaborate, mine vast amounts of information, or determine the needs of a single individual, thanks to the modern ability to accommodate many variables.