Grady King
Data Science Major
“A lot of modern medical discoveries have had a computational component. Data science allows us to extract insights from all kinds of data and analyze it in a way that we can improve how we conduct medicine.”
Excerpt from WVU News "Trio of WVU students named Goldwater Scholars"
As a WVU Eberly College of Arts and Sciences student, King utilizes his love for data and computer sciences to better understand some of society’s most pressing health challenges.
“A lot of modern medical discoveries have had a computational component,” he said. “Data science allows us to extract insights from all kinds of data and analyze it in a way that we can improve how we conduct medicine.”Ex
Also introduced to research through the Research Apprenticeship Program, King’s first project alongside his mentor, Srinivas Palanki, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, investigated whether the Affordable Care Act led to a reduction in preventable heart disease deaths.
“There are very specific deaths that are considered preventable because if you have coverage and get treatment, you have a very low chance of dying,” he explained. “Twenty U.S. states did not allow Medicaid expansions until 2018 or later, which we found cost about 19,000 preventable deaths. Through this research, we found that expanding public health insurance coverage is important for saving lives.”
The results were published in Economic Affairs earlier this year.
In addition to his research on preventable heart disease deaths, King worked at the WVU Cancer Institute to create a database of FDA-approved drugs that could be used to treat non-small cell lung cancer.
“Generally, there aren’t enough drugs to treat that type of lung cancer, so the idea is to reposition drugs that are already approved by the FDA and apply them to a new disease,” he said. “I worked to create a central place to learn about potential drug candidates for medical professionals and researchers.”
Currently, King is working in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine to genetically analyze West Virginian nasal swab samples to support viral public health monitoring.
He said he hopes to pursue a doctorate in medical data science and influence public health policy through research on the effect of ultra-processed foods and the human microbiome on health.
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