For Ohioans stories

In the nearly two years since Nakia Bridges’ concussion, she has regularly experienced severe symptoms such as memory loss, distorted vision and debilitating issues with balance and concentration, to name a few. Not to mention the financial challenges, anxiety and depression that come with forced medical leave from employment. But with help from Ohio State's Lise Worthen-Chaudhari, she's making incredible strides in her recovery.

Organ transplant surgeons have become miracle workers. What for centuries seemed impossible — taking an organ from a dead body and putting it into someone else to save a life — has become reality. But it’s not perfect. Sylvester Black and his colleagues within Ohio State’s COPPER Lab are trying to take transplantation to new levels to help even more people.

After working years as a community advocate for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, Julianna Nemeth was convinced something wasn’t being addressed in treatment programs. So she returned to school for a PhD that would help her become an intervention scientist and create interventions that would pinpoint the needs of survivors.

In 12 years, Pelotonia has raised more than $225 million. Even with COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020, Pelotonia riders planned their own individual or socially distanced small-group activities and raised $10.5 million. It's also funded these five initiatives that have produced some amazing work and breakthroughs.

When traditional means of fighting cancer — surgery, chemotherapy — don’t work, doctors sometimes try a more novel approach: immuno-oncology or immunotherapy. Currently, only about 20% of cancer patients are able to use immunotherapy to fight cancer. But that number is rising, according to Dr. Zihai Li, founding director of Ohio State’s Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology (PIIO).