The Office of Innovation and Research hosted a networking event to officially kick off the Health Research Challenge at UT San Antonio. The event brought faculty and staff members from different colleges and schools, garnering more than 200 participants. The 14 teams that were created will receive a total of $243-543.
“The UT San Antonio Health Research Challenge teams embody the potential of our combined faculty of researchers to solve the most complex health challenges of our time,” Senior Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation Jennifer Sharpe Potter, Ph.D., stated. “The funding was intended to catalyze research collaboration across the recently integrated university and provide a foundation for future external funding.”
The Health Research Challenge began with input from the internal Faculty Experience Working Group, created as part of the university’s integration process. Assistant Vice President for Strategic Research Initiatives Siobhan Fleming, Ph.D., explained that of the 72 proposals, 14 were chosen as highly pressing challenges.
“These 14 projects exemplify our commitment to bringing together our expertise and resources for the greatest possible public impact, ensuring that the work done by our research teams truly leads to improved lives,” Fleming said. “Their visionary projects reflect the combined strength and ambition of UT San Antonio.”
The teams range from two to eight members and make up a combined 50 researchers from across the university. Each project was designed to advance the program’s mission of fostering interdisciplinary and cross-campus collaboration. The winning teams are divided up among their areas of expertise, such as artificial intelligence and engineering, to address health issues, such as cancer, chronic pain, obesity, diabetes, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease.
One winning team, comprised of Francisca Acosta, Ph.D., Eric Brey, Ph.D., Dr. Carolina Solis-Herrera and Christopher Rathbone, Ph.D., aimed to create a first-of-its-kind solution by growing a patient’s tissue in a lab to test drugs before they ever enter the body.
The team will be using biopsies — samples of tissues, cells or fluids — from South Texas residents. The group will also engineer functional, vascularized “units” of human fat and muscle tissue. The lab grown tissues will be analyzed using cutting-edge tools such as Seahorse XF Analyzer to see exactly how they respond to therapies like GLP-1 agonists.
The Health Research Challenge lasts until July 31, 2027, and interdisciplinary teams must pursue at least one external grant submission within 18 months of the award end date.
