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West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
WVSOM Researchers Tap Into Appalachian Nature for Possible Medical Remedies
What if the natural environment offered by the Appalachian Mountains, plants native to the region and waterways flowing through West Virginia towns, proved to be a source of medicinal value?
That is what faculty and student researchers at the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine( WVSOM) are studying through a $ 300,000-plus grant funded by the West Virginia IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence National Institutes of Health.
Matthew Williams, PhD, associate professor in WVSOM’ s Department of Biomedical Sciences, began preliminary research on the concept in 2018 but received grant support from the state in 2024.
Williams said he has always had a fascination with natural remedies that have helped keep humanity alive throughout history.
“ Every culture on earth has its own unique mix of plants and procedures that have been attributed to healing properties,” he said.“ In our probiotic development research, we started collecting sources on campus and realized some of the best candidate probiotic strains were coming off plants that were listed as being traditional Appalachian remedies, and the spark hit that we should expand this search further. Being surrounded by historical medicinal and healing springs, we decided we would search water sources as well for beneficial microbes.”
The goal is that by blending modern microbiology with historical wisdom, the research will seek to transform old remedies into new solutions for some of today’ s most worrisome infectious diseases. Williams explained that acute and chronic infectious diseases remain among the greatest global health challenges. The research aims to identify live biotherapeutic products capable of antagonizing pathogens responsible for major human infections, offering fresh strategies in the fight against antimicrobial resistance and treatment failure.
Three WVSOM students and two Greenbrier County undergraduate students immersed themselves in the biomedical research. WVSOM students Mina Parsa, Candace Price, and Tehya Smith; Kaelyn Gore, a student at Fairmont State University; and Elias White, a student at Howard University, received direct research funding. However, the project currently supports a total of 21 WVSOM students.
Williams said during the summer, students explored Southern West Virginia with the task of seeking plant specimens that had ties to traditional Appalachian herbalism or folk medicine.
Price knew she wanted to be involved in the research almost immediately.
“ When the opportunity arose for me to be part of something that not only demonstrated what natural resources have to offer but presented it in a different light regarding the medicinal side of things, I knew I needed to be involved,” Price said.“ To me, it was as if the best of both worlds, nature and medicine, were colliding. Since
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