Two drugs already on the market to treat type two diabetes are being tested in nonhuman primates to see if they can impact the aging process. Researchers dosed marmosets with Metformin and Acarbose and found no adverse side effects
The San Antonio Medical Foundation (SAMF) has awarded Texas Biomedical Research Institute Professor Jordi B. Torrelles, Ph.D., with a $173,000 grant to study a modified Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette et Guérin (BCG) vaccine shown to have promise for treating bladder cancer. BCG is a weakened strain of Mycobacterium bovis, a vaccine for tuberculosis.
As part of Texas Biomedical Research Institute’s strategic plan to grow the organization into the leading infectious disease research institute in the country, Texas Biomed has established a renowned external scientific advisory board. Five distinguished researchers have joined the newly-formed group to provide Texas Biomed with objective perspectives on matters relating to the Institute’s research progress and priorities .
Anna Goodroe, D.V.M., DACLAM, is the newest veterinarian to join the staff at the Southwest National Primate Research Center on the Texas Biomedical Research Institute campus. As an Assistant Veterinarian, she is part of the Veterinary Resources and Research Support team.
Researchers at Texas Biomedical Research Institute are zeroing in on a new way to target tuberculosis (TB) infection. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a four-year, $2.8 million grant for scientists to study the role of lung macrophages (immune cells) in metabolic and inflammation responses to TB.
In mid-August 2019, human clinical trials were halted in the current Ebola epidemic that has claimed more than 2,100 lives in Africa. The findings resulted in the discontinuation of two of the drugs in the trial. Future patients will be randomly assigned to receive either REGN-EB3 (Regeneron) or mAb114 (Ridgeback Biotherapeutics) in an extension phase of the study. Texas Biomedical Research Institute scientists in the Institute’s Biosafety Level 4 contract research program conducted preclinical testing of several of the compounds in the trial, working with Regeneron and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
Tuberculosis and HIV – two of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases – are far worse when they occur together. Now, Texas Biomedical Research Institute researchers have pinpointed an important mechanism at work in this troubling health problem. And, their discovery could lead to a new mode of treatment for people at risk.
The newest Professor at Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Mahesh Mohan, D.V.M., M.S., Ph.D., is an HIV researcher who focuses on what happens at the sub-cellular level when a person is infected with the virus that causes AIDS.
– Old lungs are not as capable as young lungs of fighting off an infection of the bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB), placing seniors at a greater risk of developing TB. The microbe that causes this infectious disease, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), currently kills more people in the world than any other pathogen. Texas Biomed researchers published an article in the Journal of Infectious Diseases in July 2019. The study details an experiment that took place in vitro (in the lab) and in vivo (in animals) that showed fluid in the lining of the lungs plays a big role in the elderly’s susceptibility to infection with the bacterium Mtb.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute has recruited a new faculty member to San Antonio. Diako Ebrahimi, Ph.D., begins his new position today as Assistant Professor at Texas Biomed. He will establish his own research program in quantitative biology related to the fields of viral and cancer immunology and also collaborate on research projects with Texas Biomed Faculty. Dr. Ebrahimi’s recruitment is part of the Institute’s 10-year strategic plan to recruit nearly 20 new faculty members and double the size of the Institute.
A team of scientists led by Texas Biomed’s Assistant Professor Smita Kulkarni, Ph.D. and Mary Carrington, Ph.D., at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, published results of a study that pinpointed a long noncoding RNA molecule which influences a key receptor involved in HIV infection and progression of the disease.
When people suffer from both HIV and TB, it creates “one of the biggest health problems in the world,” according to Texas Biomed Assistant Professor Smita Kulkarni, Ph.D. Now, the National Institutes of Health is funding a two-year study by Texas Biomed scientists developing a lab model that mimics the early stages of the co-infection of these two diseases.
The global obesity epidemic is so far-reaching it now has an overarching name: globesity. Texas Biomed Staff Scientist Raul Bastarrachea, M.D., is part of a team that discovered a new mutation in the gene that regulates the key hormone suppressing hunger called leptin. This new mutation could help researchers understand why people develop excess of body fat. Dr. Bastarrachea’s research is aimed at helping tackle metabolic disorders like cardiovascular disease and diabetes which are fueled by obesity and impact millions of people around the world.
The William and Ella Owens Medical Research Foundation has awarded Texas Biomed Associate Professor Marcel Daadi, Ph.D., with a grant of more than $100,000 to test a promising FDA-approved drug for reversing age-related cognitive decline and memory deficits observed in aged baboons.
As part of a program called the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, the DOD is awarding Texas Biomedical Research Institute $2 million over the next three years to study a promising experimental Zika vaccine.
As the new Assistant Director for Research Support at the Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC), Christopher Chen, Ph.D., is in charge of improving operations at one of only seven National Primate Research Centers in the country.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute and UT Health San Antonio have signed an animal care and joint research agreement to move dozens of important research animals from the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies to the Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) on the Texas Biomed campus.
Professor Joanne Turner, Ph.D., the Vice President for Research at Texas Biomedical Research Institute, will serve as the new Executive Director of the Vaccine Development Center of San Antonio.
For years, scientists have been trying to come up with a better way to protect people against tuberculosis, the disease caused by infection with the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) bacteria. Texas Biomedical Research Institute Professor Jordi Torrelles, Ph.D., says new hope is on the horizon after a recent experiment performed in mice showed great promise. The study was published in the journal Mucosal Immunology.
Director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center Professor Deepak Kaushal, Ph.D. says research he collaborated on is pinpointing a possible new avenue of protection for HIV/AIDS patients. The study, published this month in the journal Cell Reports helps scientists better understand how HIV promotes deadly cases of tuberculosis (TB).
A collaboration of scientists including Professor Jean Patterson, Ph.D., of Texas Biomedical Research Institute, is working on a new way to detect Zika virus that will help guide clinicians in their treatment of patients with the disease. The test uses optofluidic chips to screen bodily fluids (blood, urine, semen) for the presence of the virus. This new approach will also help pinpoint the stage of the disease. Researchers at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Brigham Young University, and the University of California at Berkeley developed the technology being tested.
A team of researchers have discovered the interaction between an Ebola virus protein and a protein in human cells that may be an important key to unlocking the pathway of replication of the killer disease in human hosts. Scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute were part of a nationwide collaborative with scientists at Gladstone Institutes, UC San Francisco and Georgia State University for a study recently published in the journal Cell.
Are there changes that affect genes and fuel a person’s propensity to develop obesity? That’s a question under study at Texas Biomedical Research Institute. Associate Scientist Melanie Carless, Ph.D., is Principal Investigator of a $3 million, four-year grant from the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases to research this hypothesis.
Texas Biomed researchers – in collaboration with the University of Iowa – are trying to find out how malarial infections impact people exposed to Ebola virus. Both diseases are endemic in that region.
Small, New World monkeys called marmosets can mimic the sleep disturbances, changes in circadian rhythm, and cognitive impairment people with Parkinson’s disease develop, according to a new study by scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute.
A new study at Texas Biomedical Research Institute is shedding light on the role of specific proteins that trigger a mechanism allowing Ebola virus to enter cells to establish replication.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute President and CEO Larry Schlesinger, M.D., has named Deepak Kaushal, Ph.D., as the new Director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC), one of seven NIH-supported national primate research centers. Dr. Kaushal will succeed Robert Lanford, Ph.D., who is retiring from his administrative role at SNPRC in 2019.
A group of scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute have zeroed in on a new defense against HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS. Led by Ruth Ruprecht, M.D., Ph.D., the team used an animal model to show for the first time that an antibody called Immunoglobulin M (IgM) was effective in preventing infection after mucosal AIDS virus exposure.
A collaborative study between six of the National Primate Research Centers shows pregnancy loss due to Zika infections that don’t cause women any symptoms may be a common but unrecognized cause of miscarriages and stillbirths.
New research shows small, New World monkeys called marmosets may be an important animal model for emerging viruses with the potential for harmful effects on fetuses
During the West African Ebola outbreak that began in 2013, an experimental biopharmaceutical drug called ZMappTM was a glimmer of hope in the midst of a health crisis. Now, scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio have been awarded a $2 million dollar contract by the makers of ZMapp, Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc., to further test this promising new therapeutic.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute and The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio have joined forces to cure a mysterious condition called Kawasaki disease. The illness which affects young children is named after the Japanese doctor who first described it more than 50 years ago. However, researchers still do not know what causes the rashes, fever, and artery damage. Some type of infectious agent is suspected.
An alternative animal model that mimics key features of the Zika virus infection, including its lingering presence in bodily fluids, has been developed at Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute scientists have been granted funding from the National Institutes of Health to pursue a promising study on the ultimate causes of heart disease and metabolic disorders.
A los científicos del Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Texas) les han otorgado una beca por parte del National Institutes of Health (NIH) (Institutos Nacionales de Salud) para llevar a cabo un estudio prometedor sobre las causas principales de enfermedades del corazón y los trastornos metabólicos.
Research at the Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) on the campus of Texas Biomedical Research Institute helped advance a new treatment now in human trials for chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.
Joanne Turner, Ph.D., a preeminent scientist in tuberculosis (TB) research, has joined the Texas Biomed team, bringing with her a portfolio of research on the immune system in relation to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and aging.
Associate Scientist Melanie Carless, Ph.D., has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to identify microRNA biomarkers in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid that are associated with changes in the brain correlated to neuropsychiatric disorders, using a non-human primate model.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute researchers, Dr. Tim Anderson and Dr. Ian Cheeseman, have partnered with researchers at the University of Notre Dame and the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Seattle to pursue studies in drug resistant malaria.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute UTHealth in Houston partner to test a modified TB vaccine that, if effective, could prove more powerful and provide longer lasting immunity.
Dr. Robert Davey, Scientist at Texas Biomedical Research Institute, is part of a team of researchers working to find new drugs that will stop Ebola virus from growing inside infected cells. Dr. Christopher Basler, a professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University, has received a five-year, $4.1 million federal grant for this project.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute announced that its Board of Trustees has named Dr. Larry Schlesinger as the Institute’s new President and CEO. Dr. Schlesinger will take the helm of Texas Biomed effective May 31, 2017.
Dr. Timothy Anderson, Scientist in the Department of Genetics at Texas Biomedical Research Institute, received a five-year, $4.6 million MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health.
The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) recently awarded $596,533.00 to Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CPI) to initiate a partnership with Texas Biomedical Research Institute aimed at repurposing an antimalarial for use against the Ebola virus.
Texas Biomedical Research Institute Staff Scientist recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study and identify molecular mechanisms underlying early atherosclerosis.
STEM CELLS Translational Medicine published the work of San Antonio scientists aiming to develop a more effective method for delivering neural stem cells to the brain in an effort to move forward stem cell therapies to treat neurological disorders.
Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) at Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) was awarded more than $40 million for a National Institutes of to continue research programs using nonhuman primates (NHP) as part of the National Primate Research Center (NPRC) consortia.
To support a coordinated, innovative approach to the development of an AIDS vaccine, Texas Biomedical Research Institute scientists, together with an international coalition of experts, have received a grant for $23 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health. The goal of this program is to establish a vaccine approach that targets a frontline defense at the mucosa, while generating backup immune responses in the blood and tissues.