The San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) recently awarded $200,000 through its “Clusters in Research Excellence: Brain Health” to researchers at the Health Science Center and UTSA to advance research in brain health. The UT System’s BRAIN initiative was funded with $20 million by the UT Board of Regents in 2014.

“Conducting cutting-edge research on brain health continues to be a strategic goal at UT Health Science Center. We have more than 100 neuroscientists focused on studying the cause and treatment of numerous brain disorders. We have patented applications in traumatic brain injury (TBI) including a new class of compounds that protect against brain damage,” said Andrea Giuffrida, Ph.D., vice president for research at the Health Science Center. “Our core research mission is to integrate research and clinical care to advance discoveries that impact human health. Our collaborative initiatives funded through SALSI are an effective way to achieve that goal sooner.”

SALSI’s mission is to increase the research-funding base with cross-campus collaborative programs and interactions between UTSA and the Health Science Center. A large portion of SALSI funding is dedicated to supporting joint research projects that engage researchers from both institutions and develop new strategic directions in bioscience that include educational activities and research infrastructure development.

“In the last biennium, the funding from SALSI has been impressive: It has resulted in nearly 40 more scholarly works and publications; trained over 25 students (undergraduate to postdoctoral); filed three patents; and submitted a dozen grant applications which yielded over $2.4 million in additional funding. With our focus now on brain health, we are strengthening our current research infrastructure but with an eye to build other capabilities to benefit the state of Texas, and beyond,” said Bernard Arulanandam, Ph.D., interim vice president for research at UTSA.

The SALSI abrain health’ award recipients are:
Stephen Bach, Ph.D, UTSA and Bess Frost, Ph.D., Health Science Center

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