College of Nursing Research
The faculty at UTHSC College of Nursing have been exceedingly successful at securing funding for a variety of programs of research. In addition to NIH funding, our researchers have been awarded significant funding from private and public foundations and corporations. Links on researchers' names will navigate to their faculty profiles with the College of Nursing.
Dr. Ansley Stanfill’s program of research focuses on the influence of genetic and epigenetic factors on long-term outcomes after neurological injury and disease. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of her work, she shares a joint appointment in the College of Medicine in the Department of Genetics, Genomics, and Informatics. She serves as principal investigator on a prospective study in subarachnoid hemorrhage funded by the UTHSC Cornet Award. This project is currently enrolling patients at Methodist University Hospital and Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis to donate serial blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples for genetic and methylation analyses. This information is matched with patients’ clinical and demographic data; patients are then followed for 12 months post-stroke to investigate those factors that are most predictive of long-term physical, cognitive, and affective outcomes.
Dr. Stanfill is also principal investigator on a second project in sports-related concussion/mTBI. This work is funded through a Dean’s Research Fellowship Award and has two arms. In the first, former student athletes are interviewed about their experiences of sports-related concussion and factors that they feel relate to the injury, the trajectory of recovery, and readiness to return to play and classes. The second arm of this project is in partnership with the Athletic Department of Rhodes College. Here, she and her co-investigators are recruiting a prospective cohort of student athletes that will be followed longitudinally throughout the season and monitored for concussion. Upon injury, the student athlete will then donate serial blood samples and undergo further standardized testing and clinical assessment, which will allow characterization of the genetic, epigenetic, and biomarker changes related to the injury and recovery process.