Sudha Seshadri, M.D., professor of neurology at UT Health San Antonio, recently received a $1,991,114 Translational STARs award from the UT System to address research and treatment needs in Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr. Seshadri, who joined UT Health San Antonio in December 2017, is the founding director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases.
UT Health San Antonio President William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, called the award “a spectacular achievement.”
“It’s the highest award like this in UT Health San Antonio history, and one of the very highest the UT System has ever given,” Dr. Henrich added.
From 2005 until 2017, Dr. Seshadri served as professor of neurology and attending neurologist at Boston University School of Medicine. She also completed her residency and served as chief resident in neurology there. She earned her medical degree from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India.
Dr. Seshadri is a senior investigator for the seminal Framingham Heart Study, has had peer reviewed research continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for 10 years, and currently serves as the principal investigator on eight NIH U01 or R01 grants.
She has lectured extensively, nationally and internationally, on Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and the genetics of stroke and vascular brain injury.
Dr. Seshadri holds the Robert R. Barker Distinguished University Chair for the Director of the Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases, and the USAA Foundation President’s Distinguished University Chair in Neurosciences.
The UT System Board of Regents authorized the Science and Technology Acquisition and Retention (STARs) program in 2004. Multiple types of STARs awards support enhancement of UT institutions across the state. Translational STARs awards are for the recruitment and retention of nationally recognized leaders in translational and clinical sciences.
Dr. Seshadri’s Translational STARs award is the fourth for UT Health San Antonio since the award category was established in 2012. Other Translational STARs recipients are Kumar Sharma, M.D., professor and chief of nephrology, in 2017, Tim Huang, Ph.D., professor and chair of molecular medicine, 2012, and Peter Houghton, Ph.D., professor of molecular medicine and director of the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute, 2015.