Research and Innovation: February 2024
Three professors and nine HPU students in the Wanek School of Natural Sciences recently published their research in the American Chemical Society’s peer-reviewed journal ACS Infectious Diseases. Pictured in front row left to right are Brianna Viering, Halie Balogh and Owee Kirpekar; back row from left are Chloe Cox, Sophie Gregory, Dr. Heather Miller and Dr. Meghan Blackledge.
HIGH POINT, N.C., Feb. 9, 2024 – Members of the High Point University community frequently conduct, publish and share research and creative works in a variety of ways. Below is a recap of recent research and innovation initiatives.
Chemistry and Biology Students and Faculty Publish MRSA Research
Three professors and nine HPU students in the Wanek School of Natural Sciences recently published their research in the American Chemical Society’s peer-reviewed journal ACS Infectious Diseases.
The article, “Loratadine Combats Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by Modulating Virulence, Antibiotic Resistance and Biofilm Genes,” describes findings related to potential treatments against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Chemistry and biology students Brianna Viering, Halie Balogh, Chloe Cox, Owee Kirpekar, Luke Akers, Victoria Federico, Gabriel Valenzano, Robin Stempel and Hannah Pickett co-authored the article with Drs. Heather Miller, Meghan Blackledge and Pamela Lundin, associate professors of chemistry.
“This collaborative work on loratadine (the active ingredient in Claritin) positions it as an attractive anti-infective against MRSA,” said Miller. “I am so proud of how each co-author contributed to this work. It is our largest study to date.”
This was the first published article for many of the students. It was the second first-author paper for Viering, a recent biochemistry graduate, and resulted from National Institutes of Health-funded research secured by Miller and Blackledge.
“The research experience I gained while at HPU has provided both skills and knowledge that I have already put to great use as I begin my career,” said Viering, who is an associate scientist at Q² Solutions in Durham, North Carolina, as well as a graduate student in the HPU Master’s in Communication and Business Leadership Program. “Having my second publication as a first author is truly satisfying as it represents all the hard work I put in during my time as an undergraduate. I am so thankful for the support I had from my mentors, peers and HPU along this incredible journey.”
Last fall, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded Miller and her team nearly $440,000 to continue research on antibiotic resistant bacteria for three more years. The NIH grant was the second of its kind to be awarded to HPU. Miller and Blackledge first received funding on this project from the NIH grant in 2019.
The grant money is being used to help HPU undergraduate students conduct summer research and purchase new instrumentation, reagents and services for laboratories. The end goal is to develop novel treatments to combat persistent and antibiotic resistant bacterial infections.
Nursing Dean Joins National Nurse Leadership Program
Dr. Racquel Ingram, founding dean of the HPU School of Nursing and the previous president of the North Carolina Board of Nursing, was recently accepted into the National League for Nursing (NLN) LEAD program in the NLN Leadership Institute under the Center for Transformational Leadership.
The yearlong NLN LEAD program provides an opportunity for national nurse leaders to engage with peers, explore organizational systems and leadership processes for building high-performing teams and develop a personal career plan to advance leadership and professional development.
“I am so excited to have been chosen by the National League for Nursing with the opportunity to engage with other national nurse leaders,” said Ingram. “It is my desire to always take time to enhance my tacit and explicit knowledge by developing professionally and personally. As a leader, I find it valuable to encourage my team to do the same.
“This NLN LEAD endeavor will enhance my current capabilities as a transformational leader and will simultaneously contribute to the continuous development of an already high-performing team. Specifically, the forthcoming experiences in LEAD are certain to amplify my abilities in leading the School of Nursing through the development and implementation of additional undergraduate and graduate-level programs; those that will significantly strengthen local and global communities. These experiences will also afford me national opportunities toward advancing the nursing profession.”
Professor Publishes Resources to Prevent Heart Failure
Dr. Rachel Phelps, assistant professor and simulation director at the School of Nursing, has written an article, “Keeping Heart Failure in the ‘Loop,'” to be published in the April/June 2024 edition of the Journal of Christian Nursing.
This is her first article for the Journal of Christian Nursing, although she has been a member since 2013 of Nurses Christian Fellowship, the professional nursing organization that produces the journal. The article is based on a study she performed to provide heart failure patients with a technology-based resource, the GetWell Loop, and observe engagement rate within the system. The GetWell Loop is a tracking system that offers daily observations for patients and a direct line of contact with their cardiology outpatient office. This system is one way to increase a patient’s self-confidence in trusting the decisions they are making for their health are correct and decrease the rate of hospitalizations, said Phelps.
“My hope for my article is that the discussed study can be replicated in any hospital nationally and internationally,” said Phelps. “If a hospital chooses to run the discussed study in the article or a similar study, the hospital can continue the study and discuss other areas of growth for their hospital systems, such as decreasing readmission rates.”
In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 6.2 million adults have a heart failure diagnosis in the United States alone, with 26 million people worldwide. Phelps was drawn to learning about the heart during her undergraduate studies in nursing school and continued to focus on the needs of newly diagnosed heart-failure patients during her doctoral studies and years of work as a nurse in cardiac intensive care.
“Heart failure is not only a costly burden to healthcare but is also an overwhelming burden to patients managing their symptoms,” said Phelps. “Nurses in the field need to be able to see the bigger picture of how heart failure affects healthcare organizations at large and ways they may be involved in not only caring for these patients but also helping them manage their symptoms and decrease their hospitalizations.”