In partnership with Dell Medical School’s Health Transformation Research Institute (HTRI), Texas Biologics aims to translate more biologic therapies to the clinic. Together, we are launching multiple programs.
Biologics Translational Science Studios
HTRI will connect clinician investigators at Dell Med with scientists across the UT campus through a studio program. This program will provide a venue to facilitate translational collaboration to maximize the clinical applicability of proposed laboratory-based developmental work and inform the target areas that would be pursued in the biorepository and clinical trial phases.
Teams will meet regularly to develop a research question and design translational studies to answer the question. Teams will then be invited to submit proposals to an advisory panel for a translational study that proposes a line of inquiry that would produce data to support the development of a biologic. The proposals will also describe collection of clinical data and biospecimens and complementary laboratory-based experiments. As investigator teams and their projects mature to the point that they are appropriate for Phase 1 trials and a pharmaceutical partner is engaged, the studios will transition to a forum to ensure that wet lab scientists are partners with clinician investigators in the design, execution, and interpretation of Phase 1 trial data.
2023 Science Studios Grants
Feasibility of beta hydroxybutyrate supplementation to reduce inflammation in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- Linda “Annie” Feagins, M.D., and Marissa Burgermaster, Ph.D., Dell Medical School
- Christopher Jolly, Ph.D, College of Natural Sciences
- Kelly Reveles, Pharm.D., Ph.D., College of Pharmacy
Feasibility of beta hydroxybutyrate supplementation to reduce inflammation in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Early biomarkers of excessive gestational weight gain
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Lorie Harper, M.D., Elizabeth Widen, Ph.D., Brian Hobbs, Ph.D., Dell Medical School
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Jaimie Davis, Ph.D., and Molly Bray, Ph.D., College of Natural Sciences
IgE repertoire analysis in pediatric food allergy
- Pooja Varshney, M.D., Dell Medical School
- Ed Satterwhite, Ph.D., Cockrell School of Engineering
Clinical Trials Infrastructure
HTRI will consolidate and build on Dell Medical School's clinical trials infrastructure. HTRI will bring together clinical research space and associated staffing and equipment, investigational pharmacy, and study coordinators so that all of the infrastructure needed to navigate the regulatory process, recruit, enroll, and follow study participants will be at the ready for clinical trial opportunities. This component will follow the launch of the studios and the development of the biorepository with a goal to achieve Phase 1 trial readiness by the time a candidate biologic emerges from the studios in year two or three.
