On Day 3 of MHSRS 2026, USU Research Confronts the Threats a Force Can’t See

Day 3 USU research at MHSRS 2026 spans drug-resistant wounds, radiation injury, battlefield pain, and the policies that keep service members ready.

Uniformed Services University researchers presented across the third day of the 2026 Military Health System Research Symposium in Kissimmee, Fla. (USU photo)

August 6, 2026 by USU News

By the third day of the 2026 Military Health System Research Symposium (MHSRS), Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) researchers were presenting work across the science that keeps a force ready. Their topics ranged widely. Some studied wounds that no longer respond to antibiotics. Others looked at what a nuclear event would do to the body, how to control the pain of combat, and which policies keep troops healthy enough to fight.

Fighting Bacteria That Outrun the Drugs

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jeffrey Livezey, an associate professor of Pediatrics at USU, moderated a session on an old battlefield problem in a new form: wound infections that no longer respond to antibiotics. For years, the fix was to reach for the next antibiotic. That no longer works, Livezey said. The answer now has to come from many places at once: academia, industry, and the military. It also has to come from newer tools. One is the bacteriophage, a virus that hunts a specific bacterium. The session gathered projects across testing, treatment, and delivery, aimed at single germs, stubborn biofilms, and mixed infections alike. 

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jeffrey Livezey, an associate professor of Pediatrics at USU, moderates a session on combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria in combat wounds at the 2026 Military Health System Research Symposium. (USU photo)

Growing Human Tissue on a Chip to Study Radiation

Dr. Nicholas Chartrain, an assistant professor of Radiology and Bioengineering at USU and a research scientist with USU’s Center for Biotechnology (4D Bio³), showed two platforms that grow living human tissue on small engineered “chips” to study what radiation does to the body. One is a working model of human bone marrow, built with the stem cells that make blood. Under radiation, it behaved like the real thing. Blood-cell production dropped off even at low doses, especially the neutrophils that fight infection. The other platform grows human heart tissue that beats on its own. There, adding support cells called cardiac fibroblasts protected the heart cells during radiation. Chartrain’s team traced that effect to a gene, IGF-1. Together, the platforms give researchers a human way to study radiation injury and test drugs that might blunt it.

“Our goal in this work is to develop an in vitro model of bone marrow that we can use to discover and test potential medical countermeasures,” Chartrain said. 

Dr. Nicholas Chartrain, an assistant professor of Radiology and Bioengineering at USU and a research scientist with USU's 4D Bio³ Center for Biotechnology, presents research on human "tissue-on-a-chip" platforms for studying radiation injury at the 2026 Military Health System Research Symposium. (USU photo)

Recreating Nuclear Injury and Testing Countermeasures

A group of USU researchers is working out what a nuclear event would do to the body, and how to soften the blow. Dr. Gregory Holmes-Hampton, a research biologist at USU’s Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI), discussed how his team recreates the different injuries of different nuclear threats, such as fallout from a distant blast versus a nearby detonation. They do it with AFRRI’s research reactor, which can change the mix of neutron and gamma radiation. One finding stands out: radiation with more neutrons does far more damage at lower total doses. Graduate student Zammantha Manalansan-Roberson, a researcher with 4D Bio³, showed that the order of injuries matters, too. When a burn came before radiation, the early gut effects were much worse than when the radiation came first. That could change how casualties are sorted and treated after a radiological event.

Others shared progress on drugs that could blunt radiation’s damage, each given before exposure. Dr. Sanchita Ghosh presented BBT-059, a long-acting form of a signaling protein called interleukin-11. It protected both the blood and the gut against gamma and neutron radiation. Dr. Vijay K. Singh reported on gamma-tocotrienol, a form of vitamin E. Given as a single shot, it worked as a radiation shield, and it stays stable at room temperature, a plus in the field. Dr. Venkat Dronamraju, who works at AFRRI, described another drug that sped the recovery of blood cells after exposure. Together, the work points toward a medicine cabinet that could protect warfighters and first responders before a radiation threat and treat them after. 

Dr. Vijay K. Singh, a researcher at USU's Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute (AFRRI), presents research on a radiation countermeasure at the 2026 Military Health System Research Symposium. (USU photo)

Better Pain Control on the Battlefield

U.S. Navy Capt. Harold Gelfand, executive director of USU’s Defense and Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management (DVCIPM), moderated a session on controlling pain in combat without dulling the warfighter. The panel looked at new approaches meant to ease severe pain while keeping troops alert and able to fight, and to improve survival through the stages of combat casualty care.

When a Family’s Injury Follows the Warfighter

U.S. Air Force Maj. Julianne LeGierse, a doctoral candidate in USU’s Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing, asked a question she says the research on military caregiving usually skips: what happens to the service member when it is their own spouse or child who is badly hurt. Using Military Health System records, she linked uninjured active-duty members to their seriously injured family members. Then she followed the members’ mental health care over five years. The share who sought outpatient mental health care ran high, from about 36 to 70 percent. It rose higher in several groups: when the family member’s injury was itself a mental health condition, when a family faced repeated injuries over several years, and among enlisted members and women. A family member’s injury, she said, is a readiness risk for the service member. Caring for the whole family helps keep that member deployable.

LeGierse put the message to leaders directly: “It’s important for commanders and leaders to consider dependent physical and mental health as a potential risk factor for service members.” 

U.S. Air Force Maj. Julianne LeGierse, a doctoral candidate in USU's Daniel K. Inouye Graduate School of Nursing, presents research on service members' mental health care after a family member's serious injury as co-moderator Dr. Elizabeth Hisle-Gorman looks on, at the 2026 Military Health System Research Symposium. (USU photo)

Mining the Data on Standards and Readiness

Two studies used those same health records to ask whether the rules meant to keep troops fit are working. Dr. Elizabeth Hisle-Gorman, an associate professor of Pediatrics at USU, studied musculoskeletal injuries, the strains, sprains, and stress fractures that sideline troops. She compared injury rates in the two years before and after three pregnancy policy changes: longer maternity leave (from 6 to 12 weeks), a longer window to meet body-composition standards (from 6 to 12 months), and later mandatory pregnancy notice to commanders (from 12 to 20 weeks). Both the longer leave and the longer body-composition window were tied to fewer injuries after birth. The later notice made no clear difference. Giving new mothers more time, her team found, lowers the injury toll as they return to duty. 

In the same records, Kevin Chuang, a data analyst at USU’s Center for Health Services Research (CHSR), looked at eating disorders among more than 1.5 million active-duty men from 2020 to 2024. Formal diagnoses were rare, about 0.08 percent. But the odds rose for men who exceeded body-composition standards, or who were underweight or obese. The odds were also higher among younger, Hispanic, and enlisted members, and higher in the Army than the Air Force. Chuang said the low count likely reflects stigma and underreporting. He suggested two fixes: match body-composition standards to the real demands of a job, and expand weight-management support. Both could lower the risk without costing readiness.

Dr. Patrick Richard, a professor of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics at USU, presents research on how the 2017 consolidation of military hospitals affected care quality and safety at the 2026 Military Health System Research Symposium. (USU photo)

Measuring a Major Change to Military Care

Dr. Patrick Richard, a professor of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics at USU, is measuring whether a major 2017 change affected the quality and safety of military care. That year, the National Defense Authorization Act moved control of more than 700 military treatment facilities worldwide from the individual services to the Defense Health Agency (DHA). Richard’s team is using military records and standard federal quality measures to track outcomes that tell a patient whether a hospital is safe. Those include 30- and 60-day death rates, unplanned readmissions, inpatient falls, hospital-acquired infections, and drug-related harms. Pinning one policy’s effect on those numbers is hard. Much of his talk laid out how to do it credibly. 

Bacteria, radiation, pain, a family’s injury, the fine print of a standard: the subjects had little in common. But the research behind them shared one goal: keeping the force alive, healthy, and ready for what comes next.