House passes $2 million supplemental funding allocation for WVU neuroscience research 

The West Virginia House of Delegates on Friday unanimously approved legislation that would support neuroscience research at West Virginia University with a $2 million supplemental funding allocation. 

House Bill 5014 would appropriate the money from the fiscal year 2024 budget to help expand research the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute has done on the use of ultrasound technology to cure Alzheimer’s disease and addiction. 

Dr. Ali Rezai, executive chair of the institute, told the House Finance Committee earlier this week researchers there have gotten FDA approval to study the use of ultrasound technology to treat patients with severe obesity and binge eating disorders and for combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

In asking for support for the bill, lead sponsor House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, called the team at the institute “heroes.”

“They have effectively… cured Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s disease and opioid addiction on the campus of West Virginia University,” Hanshaw said. 

“We have an opportunity today to support their work through this supplemental appropriation and fund expansion of their clinical trial beginning in April, beginning less than two months from now they will be able to begin treating patients in Morgantown, West Virginia who suffer from those conditions,” Hanshaw said. “And we are extraordinarily proud of that. I’m very proud of that, because it illustrates that our university’s doing more than just basic research. It’s groundbreaking research and I’ll tell you now on live television today Ali Rezai will win the Nobel Prize someday for it.”

The appropriation will next go to the Senate for consideration.