The UT Health San Antonio Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine established the Center for Excellence in Diabetes during the summer of 2025 with a goal “to advance clinical care, research, and innovation in diabetes.” Founding Director of the Center for Excellence in Diabetes Dr. Carolina Solis-Herrera spoke at a celebration of the opening to share the center’s mission.
“We bring together outstanding clinicians, scientists, educators and innovators to transform how we prevent, understand and treat diabetes,” Solis-Herrera said. “For me, diabetes is not a simple professional focus — it’s deeply personal. Both of my parents had diabetes, and I saw many of the complications they struggled with during their lifetime.”
Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.; 12% of the U.S. population is estimated to be living with the chronic disease. Bexar County exceeds this estimate. The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District has identified the diabetes prevalence in Bexar County to be nearly 17%, one of the highest in Texas when compared to the state average prevalence of 13.9%.
Solis-Herrera emphasized the role that the Center for Excellence in Diabetes will play in handling San Antonio’s diabetes prevalence. The center will expand clinical research and therapies.
“We have 12 clinical trials right now,” Solis-Herrera explained. “Many of them are focused on prediabetes, diabetes, renal disease with diabetes and heart failure with diabetes.”
The center will also serve as a hub for collaboration with researchers worldwide. Specifically, an announced collaboration with Mexico will allow researchers to visit and learn the center’s research strategies to increase access to new knowledge about diabetes.
