Written by Claire Kowalick
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (also called UT Health San Antonio) was awarded nearly $4 million in grant funding from the Trauma Research and Combat Casualty Care Collaborative (TRC4).
TRC4 is a University of Texas System initiative that works to support trauma care research and improve patient outcomes.
For 2024, there were four directed and 49 competitive grant awards totaling $18 million distributed to 10 institutions in the UT System.
“Trauma remains the leading cause of death for individuals up to the age of 45 years. Despite the increasing burden of traumatic injury on the U.S. population, trauma care and research receive minimal funding compared to other causes of death around the world. Thanks to the very generous support and funding from the UT System Board of Regents and the Texas Legislature, these grant awards will lay the foundation for improving care and reducing deaths caused from trauma,” said James Bynum, PhD, TRC4 executive director.
Directed awards for UT Health Science Center San Antonio include:
- $250,000 for Project Trust — Trauma Recovery Using Support from Trauma-Informed-Care-Approach with primary investigators Erika Brigmon, MD, and Lillian Liao, MD.
- A shared award of $500,000, together with UTHealth Houston, for a clinical trial planning grant to identify gene variants to reduce contusion expansion after traumatic brain injury with primary investigators Susannah Nicholson, MD, of UT Health San Antonio and Charles Cox, MD, of UTHealth Houston.
- A shared award of $1 million, together with UTSA, UT Tyler and UTHealth Houston, for iRemedyACT — a program aiming to improve care for patients in the Texas Trauma System with investigators Brian Eastridge, MD, of UT Health San Antonio; Alan Cook, MD, of UT Tyler; and Amina Qutub, PhD, of UTSA.
UT Health San Antonio received more than $3.1 million in competitive awards for seven trauma-focused studies. UT Health San Antonio researchers receiving TRC4 competitive awards include William Reeves, MD; Patrick Ng, MD; Vaida Glatt, PhD; Kumar Sharma, MD; Charles Fries, MD; Savannah Chavez, MD; and Felipe Salina, PhD.
For a full list of UT System TRC4 award recipients for 2024, visit: https://www.utsystem.edu/news/2024/04/08/trc4-awards-18-million-grants-trauma-care-research.
For more information on the research projects funded through this year’s TRC4 awards, visit: https://trc4.org/Grants-Funded/.