News

Joining Forces — Collaborations strengthen research,
tackle complex projects

By Kate Hunger

What do a chlamydia vaccine currently under development, a centralized technology transfer center and a joint bioengineering Ph.D. program have in common? All were incubated by the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute (SALSI), a collaboration between UTSA and the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA).

Authorized by the Texas Legislature in 2003, SALSI was created to stimulate joint research projects and foster joint educational programs between the institutions. Tackling tough health problems requires researchers with a wide range of specialties, including the biological, behavioral, clinical sciences as well as bioengineering, public policy and many other areas of research, said Robert Gracy, vice president for research at UTSA.

“The whole idea was to get people working together on complex projects they would not or could not have done independently,” Gracy said. “In health areas, the questions are so complex … you have to have teams from multiple areas address them.”

Bringing together researchers with complementary specialties—clinical physicians and scientists and engineers—increases the kinds of questions that can be answered. As institutions of higher education strive to wring the most out of each research dollar, seeking out partners with complementary skills and specialties is particularly important, said Marianne Woods, senior associate vice president for research administration.

“UTSA and UTHSCSA have individual strengths, but together we have incredible synergy and the ability to seek external funding that adds a new dimension and depth to the research,” Woods said, adding that particularly promising areas of such research include medicinal chemistry, neuroscience, health disparities and biomedical engineering.

The road to state funding for SALSI has been a long one. Even though SALSI was authorized more than six years ago, the partnership received its first funding from state lawmakers this year. The $8 million in funding from the 81st Legislative session—split evenly by UTSA and UTHSCSA—covers the 2010–2011 biennium and has resulted in SALSI’s competitive grants program, which selectively funds collaborative research projects or educational initiatives that draw on the strengths and skills of both institutions. The hope is that these projects will prove their feasibility and go on to win external funding.

“I think that really reflects a tremendous validation” of SALSI’s efforts to date, said Brian Herman, vice president for research at UTHSCSA, of the state’s funding.

SALSI began with $4.5 million in seed money from the UT System, UTSA and UTHSCSA to encourage joint research projects and educational initiatives. Those initial investments paid off. For every dollar of seed money from SALSI, approved projects have garnered more than $1.70 in additional, extramural funding, Herman said.

The research projects and educational programs awarded seed money or otherwise supported by SALSI include a chlamydia vaccine under development and licensed by Merck & Co. Inc., the first revenue-producing license for a technology developed at UTSA. Researchers from UTSA and UTHSCSA continue to work on the vaccine, their research supported by Merck. [See story]

Various educational programs have been supported by SALSI, including a joint Ph.D. program in bioengineering. Specific research projects funded include designing improved prosthetics for wounded military members and others and developing new drug delivery systems. In addition, SALSI supported the development of the Graduate Neuroscience Training Program and an emerging Ph.D. program in translational sciences, Gracy said.

“We like to bring in additional partners,” Gracy said, explaining that UTSA and UTHSCSA already are engaged in collaborations with Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research and the Southwest Research Institute in research areas, including stem cell research, vaccine development and medicinal chemistry.

Thirty-five research project proposals and three innovative education proposals were submitted for consideration in the first funding cycle ending in October, Woods said. Among the proposals submitted, about one quarter have been selected to receive grants between $50,000 and $250,000 in the first round of funding, she said.

In addition to nurturing projects between the two institutions, SALSI has smoothed the way for future partnerships.

“It now is a structure under which collaborations can be begun and executed,” Herman said.

South Texas Technology Management

What happens with the intellectual property generated by researchers? There to guide them from the beginning is South Texas Technology Management (STTM), a regional technology transfer office serving UTSA, UTHSCSA, UT Pan American and UT Brownsville. STTM serves as a central hub for managing inventions and the resulting patents, licensing and commercialization.

“It requires specialized skills and procedures, and it is cost-effective to share,” said John Cole, interim director of STTM.

“One of the things we’re trying to do as institutions is have a lot of interchange between faculty and do a lot of research that has not been possible in the past,” Cole said.

STTM recently worked on the licensing of the technology to manufacture the chlamydia vaccine being developed by UTSA and UTHSCSA, Cole pointed out.

Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable

UTSA joined an elite group of universities, government and business leaders in 2009 with its membership in the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable (GUIRR). Formed 25 years ago, GUIRR brings together top-level representatives of government, academia and business to identify and examine priority research issues in science and technology. The roundtable is sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine. The entire membership convenes at three meetings each year in Washington, D.C.

UTSA partnered with Southwest Research Institute through GUIRR’s University-Industry Partners Program, which requires collaborating partners from the academic and business worlds to join GUIRR as a team, said James Casey, director of UTSA’s Office of Contracts and Industrial Agreements who has worked with GUIRR for years. Most of the other academic members of GUIRR are Tier One research universities. UT Austin is the only other Texas university member of GUIRR, Casey said.

Southwest Research Institute

“At this national forum, one of the nice things is it brings some recognition to UTSA and Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), that we’re players in this area,” said Southwest Research Institute Executive Vice President Walter Downing of the GUIRR partnership.

The GUIRR partnership is just one of the ways SwRI works with UTSA, Downing said.

The university and the applied research and development firm established a graduate physics program in 2005 that today includes several SwRI staff members serving as adjoint faculty.

In addition, several recent or ongoing projects involve SwRI staff and UTSA faculty, including three aerospace design projects and a tissue studies project involving a stem cell bioreactor aimed at increasing stores of stem cells to be used in regenerative medicine. That project is part of UTSA and UTHSCSA’s joint bioengineering program.

Academic ties bind the two institutions, as well. “The graduates from UTSA’s engineering and science programs represent a significant percentage of our staff,” Downing said. In fact, hundreds of SwRI’s 3,300 staff members hold a degree from UTSA.

Startech Foundation

With its offices on the Downtown Campus, the Startech Foundation is a private, nonprofit technology commercialization center geared toward promoting innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship locally. Startech, formerly the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative, has a well-developed relationship with UTSA.

“We swap clients back and forth almost on a daily basis,” said Jim Poage, president and CEO of Startech, referring to UTSA’s Institute of Economic Development.

Startech assists the university in locating private sector companies to work with, consults with individual researchers on obtaining federal grants, presents regularly to students in UTSA’s executive M.B.A. program and also participates in that program’s project review panel.

Startech wants to see San Antonio develop tech businesses to strengthen the local economy, Poage said. The university plays a key role in that regard. “That’s where the university comes in: research,” he added.