SAN ANTONIO LIFE SCIENCES INSTITUTE (SALSI)
A bold investment in UTSA’s R&D enterprise for improving health outcomes, advancing discovery and building a talent pipeline for Texas’s health sciences workforce.
FUNDING REQUEST
CURRENT FUNDING
$7M per year; $14M per biennium
$2.3M per year; $4.6M per biennium
This includes supplemental funding from the 88 th TX Legislative Session
Bold Initiative
The San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI) is a premier resource advancing research in biomedical and biotechnology industries, while providing exceptional learning opportunities for students. SALSI’s transdisciplinary collaborative R&D and support for bold grant opportunities has attributed to the growing biomedical sector work in the region.
Strategic Investments
SALSI is a strategic investment in research and development aimed at improving health outcomes. SALSI directly contributed to UTSA securing a Carnegie R1 research classification in 2022. This level of recognition, along with SALSI investment, are fueling UTSA’s national reputation for worldclass research and biomedical and health innovation. It supports impactful research projects in areas like brain health (neuroscience), cancer prevention, infectious diseases and growing new tissues (regenerative medicine)
The Challenge
SALSI funding has become the foundation for San Antonio’s health and biomedical research community, supporting a range of impactful collaborative programs, including: the San Antonio Partnership for Precision Therapeutics (SAPPT), the Brain Health Consortium, the Vaccine Development Center of San Antonio, RegenMed SA and the Center for Innovative Drug Discovery. Each have led to significant progress in brain health, cancer, health disparities, mental health and regenerative medicine. Further investments in SALSI are needed to build on the initiative’s successes, which will in turn support the research endeavors of the new School of Public Health and position UTSA to compete for federal funding.
For More Information
JoAnn Browning
UTSA Interim Vice President for Research
210.458.7379
joann.browning@utsa.edu
Jason Hassay
UTSA Government Relations
o: 210.458.5102 | m: 512.413.9598
jason.hassay@utsa.edu
Updated September 4, 2024
SAN ANTONIO LIFE SCIENCES INSTITUTE (SALSI)
The Impact
SALSI builds Texas’s health sciences workforce by providing salaries, stipends, fellowships and start-up packages for strategic faculty hires, post-docs, technicians, graduate students and undergraduate researchers. Additionally, SALSI advances bioinformatics and discoveries in developmental biology through state-of-the-art instrumentation acquisition and specialized facilities upgrades for genomics, metabolomics, cell and tissue culture, and tissue characterization. Over the past four years SALSI has supported:
• MINI GRANTS: SALSI contributed to an investment of $405K in 32 mini grants, the findings of which were leveraged to obtain $3.2M in external awards. This represents a 700% ROI on mini grant dollars. Notable awards from leading agenies such as the National Institute for Health and the National Science Foundation include:
» $2,453,954 awarded to Leslie Neely, A step towards smart and connected health in behavior analysis
» $449,999 awarded to Lindsey Macpherson, Investigating taste recovery after chemotherapy treatment
» $199,991 awarded to Jiannan Cai, Understanding and Predicting Worker Behavior in Human-Robot Co-Construction
• THE BRAIN HEALTH CONSORTIUM (BHC): The BHC received over $580,000 in research funding in FY22 from various agencies and was awarded $12.5M to research genetic brain disorders in 2021.
• RESEARCH CORE FACILITIES (CORES): Cores provide cutting-edge technology to researchers and have contributed towards securing and/or completing over $98,000,000 in sponsored project support and the publication of at least 217 research manuscripts and 121 theses/dissertations over the past 5 years. Cores include the Cell Analysis Core (CAC), Genomics Core (GC), Kleberg Advanced Microscopy Center (KAMC), Mass Spectrometry & Proteomics Core (MSPC), and Stem Cell Core (SCC).
• COLLABORATIVE PILOT PROGRAMS in brain health, COVID-19, drug discovery and precision therapeutics, leading to $20M+ in follow-on funding.
Success Story
Making a bold commitment to develop groundbreaking approaches for treating brain diseases and injuries, SALSI supported the launch and ongoing success of the nationally recognized Brain Health Consortium (BHC).
With more than 48,000 square feet of dedicated lab and research space, the BHC has grown to encompass 68 faculty members, representing a 40% increase in membership. BHC members specialize in stem cells/precision medicine, neuroscience, biomedical engineering, psychology and learning.
Dr. Jenny Hsieh, Semmes Foundation Chair in Cell Biology and the director of the UTSA Brain Health Consortium
