Explore some of the School of Medicine’s research accomplishments below.
People living with HIV often have mental health problems, which can make their HIV treatment less effective and lower their quality of life. This study looked at how personal characteristics—such as age, sex, race, and where someone lives—are connected to mental health conditions in people with HIV in South Carolina.
Capillary malformation (CM) is a condition people are born with that affects blood vessels in the skin, mouth, eyes, and brain. Scientists have had a hard time studying CM and testing new medicines because they didn’t have good models to work with in the lab.
Aphasia is a language problem that often happens after a stroke, but scientists still don’t fully understand why some people have more severe symptoms than others. In this study, we developed and tested a new method called gene-expression lesion-symptom mapping (GLSM).
Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a type of blood cancer, often face different outcomes depending on the neighborhood they live in.
Scientists believe that problems with how insulin works in the brain—especially in a part called the hippocampus—is linked to memory and thinking problems seen in conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.
Learn more about success for our clinical graduate programs at Discovery USC 2025.
Courtney Wright, a biomedical sciences graduate student at the School of Medicine Columbia, earned an award for her poster presentation at Discover USC 2025.
This study looked at how strokes affect nonverbal cognitive skills, like recognizing patterns and understanding meaning and relationships between things, in people with language disorders after stroke. It focused on whether brain disconnections, especially those caused by white matter hyperintensities (WMH), contribute to these difficulties.
School of Medicine Columbia researchers, including Collin Evans, Jonathan Kennedy, Molly Maranto, Jonathan Davis, Xiaoqin Wang and Mohamad Azhar are part of a team studying venous thrombus formation and resolution.
School of Medicine Columbia faculty members, Tyler Gonzalez, MD, and J. Benjamin Jackson III, MD, along with fourth-year medical student, SarahRose Hall, are part of a study team that looked at patients with insertional Achilles tendinopathy (IAT) who had a specific type of surgery called minimally invasive Zadek osteotomy (MIS ZO)
Research performed by MD/PhD student David Horovitz and his research mentor Dr. Joseph A. McQuail identifies brain regions and biomarkers that protect cognition into advanced ages.
Students at the USC School of Medicine Columbia Florence Regional Campus are involved in many research projects during their time as a medical student.
Researchers introduce a novel open-source software tool designed to uncover how brain-based factors mediate relationships between behavioral and cognitive outcomes.
A recent study found antibiotic cefoxitin is as effective as traditional antimicrobial therapies for treating intra-amniotic infections and endometritis.
The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of intravenous tranexamic acid (TXA), a medication used to treat and prevent excessive blood loss, on blood loss outcomes in anterior, posterior, and combined approaches for elective cervical spine surgery.
A collaborative study with investigators from the Arnold School of Public Health, Communication Sciences and Disorders and the School of Medicine, Department of Neurology investigated the intricate relationship between hearing loss, cognitive decline, and social isolation among aging adults.
In this project, Dr. Brandon VanderVeen, Postdoctoral Fellow with the USC School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology and colleagues investigated the involvement of gut bacteria in cancer-associated wasting syndrome.
In a recently published study by Holly LaVoie, Professor, at the USC School of Medicine Columbia, she and her lab showed that in addition to STARD1, STARD4 and STARD6 transcripts are expressed in human primary ovarian steroidogenic cells.
Dr. Songyuan Deng, an Associate Scientist at the South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare at the USC School of Medicine-Columbia, has conducted a study proposing an algorithm to identify the predominant prenatal care provider and estimate the percentage of identified predominant providers.
This study demonstrates that AI can accurately measure the integrity of residual brain tissue after a stroke, which has direct implications for neuroplasticity and the severity of language impairments after the stroke (aphasia).
In a new study, led by Susan K. Wood, Associate Professor at the USC School of Medicine, her team showed for the first time, a protective role for exercise over vagal tone and biomarkers of cardiac stress in females exposed to psychosocial stress.
Brooke Bullard, a third-year Ph.D. student in Angela Murphy's lab at the School of Medicine Columbia, received a prestigious three-year F31 award from the National Center of Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH).
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.
Scientists at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia are researching important linkages between brain mitochondrial function and social behavior that could lead to a better understanding of autism spectrum disorder and post-partum depression.
Assistant professor of medicine Deepak Bhere was drawn to the study of stem cell therapy because he wanted to do research that has real impact on patients’ lives. His team at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Columbia has the potential to do just that as they pursue new treatment options for patients with glioblastoma.
As the state’s flagship institution, the University of South Carolina is well has many strengths in both research and treatment of stroke and aphasia — a common consequence of stroke characterized by difficulty speaking or understanding others’ speech. The research is critically important in the state with the seventh-highest incidence of stroke mortality in the U.S.
When it comes to risk factors for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, the Palmetto State checks every box, from high incidence of stroke and diabetes to heart disease and obesity.
Drs. Wenceslau and McCarthy apply their partnership at home and in the lab to generate high level research and stay productive in their fields. The couple mentor the next generation of well-rounded, thoughtful and innovative cardiovascular researchers in their lab at the university's Cardiovascular Translational Research Center.
Training with exceptional mentors and surrounded by her supportive School of Medicine Columbia family, Ph.D. student Hannah Burzynski found her passion and path to a career in research at the University of South Carolina.
To address the need for neurological expertise in rural areas of the state, Souvik Sen, MD and other neurology faculty members who also are clinicians at Prisma Health in Midlands have begun a research model called teleproctoring.