Two scientists at UT Health San Antonio, the academic health center of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UT San Antonio), will be honored with 2026 BioMedSA Innovation in Healthcare and Bioscience awards.
The awards recognize San Antonio leaders in the areas of research, clinical innovation, entrepreneurship and lifetime achievement, whose accomplishments improve lives and help make San Antonio a premier location for bioscience innovation.
Honorees will be recognized September 23 at an event in San Antonio.
Robert A. Clark, MD, associate vice president for translational science and Ashbel Smith Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, will receive the Innovation in Research award.
“Research is always a collaborative team effort. Every discovery and step toward better treatments is built on the ideas and expertise of many people. I have been fortunate to work alongside exceptional colleagues, trainees and partners in San Antonio, and I see this recognition as a reflection of what we have accomplished together,” said Clark.
Clark’s research achievements span more than five decades, and his leadership has helped build the infrastructure for translational biomedical research in San Antonio. His work, supported by both the National Institutes of Health and Veterans Health Administration, has led to major breakthroughs in the understanding and treatment of immune disorders and Parkinson’s disease.
Clark is also the founding director of the Institute for Integration of Medicine & Science and principal investigator of the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award grant. Funded since 2008, this program supports clinical trials, workforce development and cross-institutional collaboration to strengthen the framework for discoveries across the city.
Receiving the Innovation in Clinical Care Award is Donald H. Jenkins, MD, FACS, vice chair for quality and professor of surgery in the Division of Trauma and Emergency Surgery at the Long School of Medicine.
Jenkins is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and nationally recognized trauma surgeon who has transformed emergency and trauma care in South Texas. By translating military medical advances into civilian practice, his efforts have made San Antonio the national model for trauma innovation.
Jenkins pioneered a whole blood rotation system that ensures that low-titer O-positive whole blood is available for responders in the field before being rotated back to trauma centers. Through collaboration with U.S. military branches, South Texas Blood and Tissue, University Hospital and the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, this has resulted in a sustainable supply chain delivery system that provides transfusions earlier, dramatically reducing mortality in trauma patients across South Texas.
“This innovation is changing pre-hospital care worldwide. It was started on a tiny scale by a group of healthcare professionals including EMS medics, nurses, physicians, blood bankers, the trauma system, developmental experts and leaders, blood donors and researchers, all with a common purpose: to provide bleeding patients with what they need, when and where they need it, to save their lives,” Jenkins said.