UTSA provides biosciences tour for foundation donors

(Oct. 2, 2003)--Bernard Arulanandam, UTSA assistant professor of immunology, and Hans Heidner, UTSA associate professor of microbiology, recently discussed their research with donors to the San Antonio Area Foundation (SAAF) during a breakfast and tour of UTSA biosciences facilities on the 1604 Campus.

Pictured in the upper photo is Arulanandam showing a digital image of bacteria that he is utilizing to develop a preventative aerosol that can be applied through the nasal passageway. In the lower photo, Heidner (right) discusses his vaccine research project involving mosquitoes.

Heidner is one in a group of UTSA faculty members who recently received $128,000 in grant funding from SAAF. Grant recipients include John Zhang, assistant professor of health and kinesiology, whose project is looking at the effect of exercise training on cardiac function and repair following a heart attack, and Robert Renthal, professor of biology, whos project studies membrane protein folding by fluorescence resonance energy transfer.

Over the last two years, SAAF has funded grants submitted by UTSA faculty totaling $270,000. Arulanandam received a grant from the foundation in 2002 to study the effects of antibody deficiency on the human body. Funded projects range from educational outreach programs, student learning communities and classroom technology upgrades to a book recalling the history of Black Seminole women.

Last summer, SAAF presented annual scholarship awards to more than 270 Bexar County high school graduates at a ceremony hosted at the UTSA Downtown Campus.

SAAF, a public, nonprofit philanthropic organization, has awarded more than $65 million in grants since its inception in 1964.