Rare earth elements, joint pain and addiction treatment are highlighted in VCU faculty research receiving new awards. Five VCU faculty-led research projects have received new support from VCU's Commercialization Fund, a twice-yearly funding opportunity that aims to accelerate development of campus projects to improve their chances of being licensed and brought to market.

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Tralyte Health is in the early stages of commercializing VCU chemistry researcher Xuewei Wang’s creation of a portable, at-home calcium monitoring device for people living with hypoparathyroidism, or hypopara. The company’s option agreement, facilitated by VCU TechTransfer and Ventures, allows Tralyte to evaluate the technology and prepare for commercialization before converting to a full license.

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VCU research project competes for national title in STAT Madness
A research collaboration led by VCU to advance aerosol therapy for newborns has been selected for STAT Madness, a national bracket-style competition in which the public votes for the best innovation in biomedical research of 2025.

Hosted by STAT, a news organization covering health, science and medicine, the virtual tournament highlights the most impactful and important scientific breakthroughs published during the previous year. The competition includes 64 research endeavors from 50 universities.

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National Academy of Inventors honors VCU’s Shunlin Ren as a fellow
The NAI honor acknowledges Ren’s pioneering work in lipid biology and cellular-stress signaling. His research has led to a new class of therapeutic compounds that his lab — and a pharmaceutical giant — are exploring to treat a wide range of inflammatory and metabolic diseases. Ren has filed more than 70 international patents, including 12 in the United States.

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The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) recently inducted five VCU College of Engineering researchers as senior members. Chosen for their innovative engineering contributions, the honorees are recognized as visionary inventors whose groundbreaking research and patented technologies are driving meaningful societal and economic advancements across the national innovation landscape.

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To provide additional therapeutic support to those struggling with addiction, Reisweber, Psy.D., an affiliate assistant professor of psychology at VCU, developed a program that allows patients to slip on a VR headset and enter a calming virtual space any time they need it. The program has drastically improved recovery rates for veterans all over the country. 

At Virginia Commonwealth University, there’s a saying: Every Ram’s a researcher.

But it takes hard work to get faculty discoveries from the lab into the world, where those inventions can benefit society in meaningful ways.

Researchers across VCU’s campuses are increasingly building new business ventures, forming partnerships with companies, licensing technologies and collaborating with industry and government agencies in ways that directly shape patient care, public health, advanced manufacturing and even national security.

“Our faculty innovators are not only challenging the conventional way we look at the world, but they’re doing it in service of improving our communities and the world at large,” said P. Srirama Rao, Ph.D., VCU’s vice president for research and innovation. “That dual purpose of breakthrough and impact increasingly defines the culture of research at VCU.”

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