Climbing to tier one: UTSA reports 34 percent increase in research spending

By Christi Fish
Public Affairs Specialist

The University of Texas at San Antonio released its newest research numbers today, reporting a 34 percent increase to $46,521,487 in total research spending for the Sept. 1, 2008-Aug. 31, 2009 fiscal year (FY 2009) over the previous fiscal year, when research spending totaled $34,601,444. Research spending is up 97 percent from just five years ago, when UTSA’s total research expenditures were $23,605,844.

Additionally, UTSA reported $67,427,457 in total research and non-research spending (total sponsored programs expenditures) for FY 2009. This represents a 30-percent increase in total sponsored programs expenditures over the last fiscal year and a 71-percent increase over the last five fiscal years, when the totals were $51,869,574 and $39,463,871, respectively.

“As we build a tier-one university for a tier-one city, the success of our research program is critical,” said UTSA President Ricardo Romo. “We will continue to focus on our academic and research strengths in health, security, energy, sustainability, and human and social development by recruiting top faculty and students, growing our graduate programs and strengthening our research collaborations within the United States and abroad.”

“To say we’ve almost doubled our research activities in the past five years is really significant,” said Robert Gracy, UTSA vice president for research. “Today, we are certainly on an upward trajectory to tier one status. We have developed a stronghold of collaborative research partners in the region and our recruitment of top faculty will certainly lead to even larger increases in research expenditures in the coming year as those individuals gain traction at UTSA.”

Last year was particularly strong for UTSA research for a variety of reasons. The College of Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Education and Human Development and College of Liberal and Fine Arts were the top four contributors in overall research dollars. The colleges house most of UTSA’s campus-based research centers and institutes.

Notably, UTSA biology researchers Bernard Arulanandam and Ashlesh Murthy in the South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, in collaboration with Guangming Zhong at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, developed an agreement with Merck and Co Inc. to develop a chlamydia vaccine. The revenue-producing license was UTSA’s first.

Additionally, UTSA began receiving funding from a variety of new sources last year including the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and multiple contracts with international partners. The university also began to focus on the development and commercialization of new marketable technologies developed by faculty and students. By Aug. 31, 2009, UTSA’s invention disclosures increased 244 percent and its provisional patent applications increased 400 percent over the prior year.

In related news, UTSA is expected to receive more than $1.4 million in Texas Research Incentive Program (TRIP) funding this fiscal year, the first of two payments totaling $3,850,000 that UTSA earned in matching funds from the State of Texas. The matching funds are based on a monetary incentive tied to private gifts that were received by the university before Sept. 1. Established in May 2009 by House Bill 51 of the 81st Texas Legislature, TRIP is one of three initiatives that supports the growth of Texas’ emerging research universities. House Bill 51 also established the Research University Development Fund and the National University Research Fund to promote higher education in Texas.

In the coming fiscal year, UTSA expects to spend $75 million in sponsored programs including $50 million in research. Sources for the projections include:

• Funding to be received by newly hired faculty
• Construction of a new research building
• Additional funding from the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
• Partnerships with strategic collaborators such as the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Southwest Research Institute, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research and the military
• New funding from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, a $3 billion, 10-year funding opportunity for cancer researchers in Texas
• Increased research activity by UTSA research centers and institutes
• Addition of new senior leadership

Sibling researchers on Huntington's disease to speak at UTSA Nov. 10-11

By Christi Fish
Public Affairs Specialist

The UTSA Neurosciences Institute will present two lectures Nov. 10-11 by sibling scholars Alice Wexler and Nancy Wexler, who are researching different aspects of Huntington’s disease, which also has directly affected their family. The evening lectures are free and open to the public.

UCLA historian Alice Wexler will speak on “Stigma, Secrecy and Medical History: What Can We Learn from Huntington’s Disease?” at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 10 in the University Center Retama Auditorium (2.02.02) on the Main Campus. Free and open to the public, a reception will precede the lecture at 4:30 p.m.

Columbia University Professor Nancy Wexler will speak on “Expansions on a Dream: From Cause to Cure of Huntington’s Disease” at 6 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 11 in the Main Building Auditorium (0.104) on the Main Campus. Free and open to the public, a 5:30 p.m. reception will precede the lecture.

The joint lectures highlight two academic perspectives on Huntington’s disease from gifted scholars who have had excruciatingly personal experience with the malady. Sisters Nancy Wexler and Alice Wexler are at risk of Huntington’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the nervous system that took their mother’s life. Subsequently, both women have committed their personal and professional lives to advocacy and study of the fatal disease. Alice’s work pursues the disease from historical and sociological perspectives; Nancy’s work focuses on its biological basis and developing a cure.

In a compelling twist, Nancy Wexler’s scientific quest led her to a remote jungle region of Venezuela, where she had the opportunity to live among and study the genes of a large, isolated family with a high instance of Huntington’s disease. This seminal work led to the 1983 discovery of a genetic marker for Huntington’s disease and to the 1993 discovery of the gene that causes the disease.

Alice Wexler, who is a fellow at the UCLA Center for the Study of Women accompanied her sister on this mission and wrote about it in her memoir, “Mapping Fate: A Memoir of Family, Risk and Genetic Research.” Her subsequent work has focused on detailing the history and lived experience of the disease in the context of expanding medical knowledge.

The lecture by Alice Wexler is sponsored by the UTSA Neurosciences Institute in the College of Sciences, the UTSA American Studies Program and the UTSA Honors College. The lecture by Nancy Wexler is part of the UTSA Neurosciences Institute Distinguished Public Lecture Series.

For more information, contact Salma Quraishi at (210) 458-7493.

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About the speakers

Nancy Wexler, president of the Hereditary Disease Foundation, is the Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology in the Departments of Neurology and Psychology at Columbia University’s School of Physicians and Surgeons. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Albert Lasker Public Service Award in 1993. Her research has led to the development of a pre-symptomatic test for Huntington’s disease and ultimately to the identification of the gene that causes the disease.

Historian Alice Wexler is the author of “Mapping Fate: A Memoir of Family, Risk and Genetic Research” and “The Woman Who Walked into the Sea: Huntington’s and the Making of a Genetic Disease,” both historical texts about Huntington’s disease. For the latter, she won the 2009 American Medical Writers Association Medical Book Award. She is a research scholar at the UCLA Center for the Study of Women.

About the UTSA Neurosciences Institute

The UTSA Neurosciences Institute is a multidisciplinary research organization for integrated brain studies. The institute’s mission is to foster a collaborative community of scientists committed to studying the biological basis of human experience and behavior, and the origin and treatment of nervous system diseases. Its areas of focus include nervous system development; neuronal and network computation; sensory, motor and cognitive function; learning and memory and the disease processes that impact them; implementing mathematical and computational tools in experimental neurobiology; and mathematical theory of neurons and nervous systems. Learn more or make a gift at the UTSA Neurosciences Institute Web site.

San Antonio Water System joins Energy Research Alliance of San Antonio

By Christi Fish
Public Affairs Specialist

Dedicated to exploring new and innovative energy solutions, San Antonio Water System (SAWS) announced today it has joined the Energy Research Alliance of San Antonio, established in June by The University of Texas at San Antonio, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and CPS Energy. The four organizations will collaborate to define and implement new and alternative strategies for the development of energy technology.

“Working together to find new synergies in solutions to essential issues like water and energy is essential to the well-being of San Antonians,” said Steve Clouse, SAWS chief operating officer. “Our ratepayers depend on groups like this working together to find the most economical, efficient methods. We welcome the opportunity.”

“The energy challenges that our world faces today and will be facing in the future must be addressed now by dedicated researchers with a broad array of skills and specialties,” said Robert Gracy, UTSA vice president for research. “We are excited to join Southwest Research Institute and CPS Energy in developing the Energy Research Alliance of San Antonio. The addition of San Antonio Water System to the partnership will certainly catalyze our progress. Together, we will be able to develop energy solutions that each individual organization could not accomplish by working on its own.”

“We welcome SAWS as a new partner in the Energy Research Alliance of San Antonio,” said Danny Deffenbaugh, vice president of the Mechanical and Materials Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute. “Adding our local water supplier to the alliance reflects the critical relationship between water and energy.”

Cris Eugster, CPS Energy executive vice president and chief sustainability officer, said, “San Antonio has the opportunity to be a leader in clean-energy technologies and their practical applications, and the Energy Research Alliance of San Antonio will be a key catalyst in this endeavor.”

No additional funding is required to support the joint initiative.

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About the Energy Research Alliance of San Antonio partners

San Antonio Water System

Since 1992, San Antonio Water System has provided leadership in managing and developing water resources in the San Antonio region. Water and wastewater services are provided to more than 1 million consumers in the San Antonio area. For more information, visit the San Antonio Water System Web site.

The University of Texas at San Antonio

The University of Texas at San Antonio is one of the fastest growing higher education institutions in Texas and the second largest of nine academic universities and six health institutions in the UT System. As a multicultural research and teaching institution of access and excellence, UTSA aims to be the Next Great Texas University, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment. UTSA serves more than 29,100 students in 64 bachelor’s, 47 master’s and 21 doctoral degree programs in the colleges of Architecture, Business, Education and Human Development, Engineering, Honors, Liberal and Fine Arts, Public Policy, Sciences and Graduate School. Founded in 1969, UTSA is an intellectual and creative resource center and a socioeconomic development catalyst for Texas and beyond.

Southwest Research Institute

Southwest Research Institute is an independent, nonprofit, applied engineering and physical sciences research and development organization using multidisciplinary approaches to problem solving. The institute occupies more than 1,200 acres and provides more than 2 million square feet of laboratories, test facilities, workshops and offices for more than 3,300 employees performing contract work for industry and government clients.

CPS Energy

CPS Energy is the nation’s largest municipally owned energy company providing both natural gas and electric service. Acquired by the City of San Antonio in 1942, the company serves approximately 700,000 electric customers and more than 320,000 natural gas customers in and around America’s seventh-largest city. CPS Energy ranks among the nation’s lowest-cost energy providers, owns the highest financial ratings of any electric system in the United States, stands No. 1 in wind-energy capacity among municipally owned utilities across the country and ranks No. 1 in Texas in the amount of solar-generated electricity under contract.