There were some exciting announcements along Roanoke’s Innovation Corridor last week! In case you missed something, here are a few of the happenings from the week of February 1 – 7, 2021 – (#roanokeinnovates):
Carilion Clinic Structural Heart and Valve Program team enrolls first patient in Ancora Heart CORCINCH-HF Study
“The ability to offer additional treatment options to heart failure patients whose disease has progressed to the point that optimal medical therapy is no longer able to manage the symptoms is imperative,” said Jason R. Foerst, MD, medical director of the Carilion Clinic Structural Heart and Valve Program and assistant professor of medicine at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, whose team enrolled the first patient in the CORCINCH-HF Study. “My team and I are excited to be a part of the CORCINCH-HF Study and look forward to working with Ancora Heart to fulfill our role in this very important clinical trial.” LEARN MORE.
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute graduate student awarded NIH Fellowship to examine balance, walking in children with cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy is the most common motor disability in children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many children with cerebral palsy have one side of their body weaker than the other side, which impacts mobility, motor skills, and muscle tone. This condition, hemiparesis, results from damage to the developing brain, originating from various conditions including stroke.Hassan Farah, a Virginia Tech translational biology, medicine, and health (TBMH) graduate student working in the laboratories of Stephanie DeLuca, an associate professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and Robin Queen, an associate professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering, is studying how children with cerebral palsy balance, walk, and compensate for motor impairments. LEARN MORE.
Roanoke-based FIREFLI named one of the best places to work in Virginia
Firefli is proud to announce that it has been recognized as one of the “2021 Best Places to Work in Virginia” by Virginia Business Magazine and Best Companies Group, ranking in the top 20 for small employers. Firefli joins only two other businesses based in Southwest Virginia to receive the award since its inception in 2010.“We were honored to find Firefli at the top of the list. I believe we can trace this recognition back to the values our company was founded on,” says Greg Brock, Founder & CEO of Firefli. “We’re an employee-first organization that says there’s a better way to work together, to take care of each other, and most importantly, to trust one another. What we’ve seen as a by-product of this philosophy is an inspired, creative, close-knit team producing amazing work for our clients, day after day.”Firefli is a Roanoke, Va.-based, full-service marketing agency that emboldens brands with strategies and solutions that drive business and create value. The agency serves more than 50 clients throughout the U.S with brand management, custom website design and development, digital strategy, content marketing, etc. Firefli has previously received recognition from The Webby Awards, the leading international awards honoring excellence on the internet, as well as the Roanoke Chapter of the American Advertising Federation and the Blue Ridge chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. The firm was also named the 2018 Roanoke Regional Chamber Small Business of the Year. LEARN MORE.