Health, Medicine, & Humanity Archive

Two Wake Forest University School of Medicine researchers are among 15 innovation pioneers who will be honored in the 2026 class of National Inventors Hall of Fame ® Inductees 

Graça Almeida-Porada, MD, PhD, professor at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) and Christopher Porada, PhD, professor at WFIRM, lead the Porada Lab. Not only are they working to advance the outcomes of stem cell transplantation and gene therapy in fetal and neonatal patients with genetic disorders; […]

For nearly four years, Megan Bennett has served as an assistant professor in Health and Exercise Science at Wake Forest. Yet her commitment to public health—and her two decades of research on chronic disease interventions—extends far beyond the classroom. This month, she’s launching her most ambitious […]

Prof. Kristen Beavers discusses nearly a decade of Wake Forest research on weighted vests, their potential benefits for older adults losing weight, and what her landmark INVEST trial revealed about bone loss.

A landmark two-year trial involving 2,111 older adults found that structured lifestyle changes — including diet, exercise, and cognitive challenge — measurably improved brain health and cognition.

A Wake Forest-led clinical trial of 150 older adults found that wearing weighted vests during weight loss did not significantly prevent bone loss, highlighting the need for additional protective strategies.

Wake Forest is recruiting women 50+ for a 48-month clinical study testing whether weight loss and exercise can prevent knee osteoarthritis — the leading cause of disability in adults — before it develops.

A $5.7 million NIH-funded Wake Forest study will track whether older adults with obesity and osteoarthritis can reduce chronic pain through incremental daily movement and nutrition coaching delivered entirely online.