The Voelcker Fund has supported innovative research to several UTSA faculty members, including Stanton McHardy, seen here at the Center for Innovative Drug Discovery.
(Feb. 19, 2018) -- Researchers at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) are working with cutting-edge resources to make impactful discoveries in brain health with support from the Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Fund. With its generosity and belief in the power that science has to improve ordinary lives, the Voelcker Fund is aiding UTSA in bringing stem cell and regenerative medicine research to new heights.
The fund’s support is advancing UTSA research to generate stem cells for use in regenerative medicine. John McCarrey, Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Distinguished University Chair in Cellular and Molecular Biology, uses pluripotent stem cells to address neurodegenerative diseases.
“In the past, researchers used skin or blood cells from a person with a disease like Alzheimer’s to get a closer look at their illness,” McCarrey said. “However, because Alzheimer’s is a disease of the brain, not of the blood or skin, it was questionable whether looking at those cells was particularly useful.”
With collaborators Doug Frantz, Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Distinguished Professor in Chemistry, Chris Navara, associate professor of research, and George Perry, Semmes Foundation Distinguished University Chair in Neurobiology and Dean of the College of Sciences at UTSA, and the support of the Voelcker Fund, McCarrey has created PriStem, a UTSA facility that is solely focused on finding ways to treat neurodegenerative disease and other afflictions with pluripotent stem cells.
“Parkinson’s, a neurodegenerative disease, results from the loss of a very specific type of cell,” Navara said. “You can study these illnesses non-invasively and perhaps learn more after patients pass away. But the trouble is that you’re studying a brain with a disease that’s been deteriorating for a few decades, it’s like studying a forest fire after the fire’s already been through and done.”
To get to the core of neurodegenerative disease, it’s necessary to look at afflicted brain cells.
To accomplish that, UTSA researchers at PriStem are using pluripotent stem cells, which are cells that can become any kind of cell in a person’s body. That allows PriStem the ability to study neurodegenerative disease using any cell from a patient’s body and change it into an actual brain cell that may as well have come from the person.
“The global picture is that we can take a living person’s skin cells, turn them into brain cells and study those in a dish without ever having to touch their brain,” Frantz said. “We can learn about that specific person’s disease and then screen for drugs that could slow or even reverse the disease. That’s a very big hurdle, but it’s what we want to do.”
This personalized research, called “disease in a dish,” can be used to test drugs designed to treat illnesses of all kinds.
“I’m very excited by UTSA’s interdisciplinary initiatives in brain health research,” said Jenny Hsieh, Semmes Foundation Chair in Cell Biology and Director of the UTSA Brain Health Consortium. “We’re now working to build a consortium leveraging expertise in several different disciplines, to yield innovative research that can have a truly tremendous impact on human lives. The work being accomplished by PriStem is a wonderful example of that effort.”
The Voelcker Fund is also working with Stanton McHardy, medicinal chemistry core director of the UTSA Center for Innovative Drug Discovery (CIDD) and associate professor of chemistry. With a 4-year, $750,000 grant to the CIDD, the Voelcker Fund is making the drug-testing library at UTSA as diverse as possible with the CIDD Screening File Diversity Initiative. The project is already underway and is being led by McHardy and Frantz with Michael Doyle, Rita and John Feik Distinguished University Chair in Medicinal Chemistry, and Oleg Larionov, associate professor of chemistry.
“We want the library to be expansive, because most drug-screening laboratories all have the same compounds. They buy them from the same place,” Frantz said. “By taking an innovative, original approach, we’ll have a much better chance of finding a drug that can battle neurodegenerative disease.”
Additionally, the Voelcker Fund is supporting research opportunities for UTSA undergraduate and graduate students, so they can gain valuable experience working in cutting-edge laboratories.
“The Voelcker Fund has always been so generous in its support of research at UTSA,” Frantz said. “Their dedication to impactful work is truly amazing.”
UTSA is recognized as one of the top five young universities in the nation by Times Higher Education.
Learn more about the Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Fund.
Learn more about the UTSA Department of Biology.
Learn more about the UTSA Center for Innovative Drug Discovery.
Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
This academically rigorous mathematics-based summer enrichment program prepares middle and high school students for advanced studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Participants learn about problem-solving systems, develop greater awareness of STEM careers and strengthen their research skills.
UTSA Main CampusArchaeology 101 will introduce campers to archaeology and build on learned skills through experimental activities (like cave painting, weaving, and garbology).
Center for Archaeological Research, UTSA Main CampusThe camp exposes rising high school juniors, rising seniors and incoming college freshman to the many facets of the criminal justice system. Students will have opportunities to learn the functions of police in society and apply scientific theories to criminal investigations by examining a mock crime scene.
UTSA Main CampusThe Academy for Teacher Excellence Research Center invites you to join us for the Summer Bridging Institute. This institute will focus on being lifelong growers and continually seeking to increase our skills as educators.
UTSA Downtown CampusArchaeology 201 will briefly go over the foundations of archaeology and related skills, followed by a different topic over the course of this week (like skeletal analysis, global cultures, and more).
Center for Archaeological Research, UTSA Main CampusCraft a comic to create your own narrative and find your voice through storytelling. Participants will learn to create characters that are self-reflective and through a community lens.
REGSS Community Room (DB 3.202,) UTSA Downtown CampusCome enjoy a discussion on art as a self expression in the age of moving technology and telling your story with a community.
REGSS Community Room (DB 3.202,) UTSA Downtown CampusThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.