UT System awards STARs funding to McGovern
McGovern Medical School received $3.5 million in UT System STARs funding during FY24 in support of 11 faculty members.
Established in 2004, the UT System STARs (Science and Technology Acquisition and Retention) program provides funding to help purchase state-of-the-art research equipment and make necessary laboratory renovations to encourage faculty members to perform their research at a UT institution. Funded through the Library, Equipment, Repair, and Rehabilitation program, academic and health-related institutions receive annual STARs allocations for the purposes of recruiting and/or retaining high-caliber research faculty. The award programs include Rising STARs to recruit junior investigators, and Faculty and Translational STARs categories for seasoned faculty carrying out fundamental or medically translational research, respectively. Additionally, funds are available to help institutions retain excellent research faculty.
The Faculty STARs include Sunil Krishnan, MD, Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery; Jagat Narula, MD, PhD, MACC, Department of Internal Medicine; Julio Cordero-Morales, PhD, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Valeria Vasquez, PhD, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; and Long Jun Wu, PhD, IMM-Center for Neuroimmunology and Glial Biology.
STARs grants also were awarded to Ramesh Papanna, MD, MPH, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, and Rodrigo Morales, PhD, Department of Neurology.
Rising STARs were Dongze Zhang, MD, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine; Xiaoqin Wu, PhD, Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology; Richard Cox, PhD, IMM-Center for Metabolic and Degenerative Diseases; and Jung Hwan Kim, PhD, Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery.
“We are grateful for this support from the UT System, which ensures our faculty have access to the equipment and technology needed to advance their research programs,” said John Hancock, MA, MB, BChir, PhD, ScD, executive dean.