About

The School of Medicine at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley was founded in 2015 to serve as an educational, clinical, and research facility for the highly underserved population located along the border of South Texas and Mexico. As part of its mission to educate medical students and future biomedical scientists, the School of Medicine (SOM) hosts an annual research symposium, one of the first (and most likely the very first) health-focused research symposia in the lower Rio Grande Valley. The Research Symposium creates an opportunity for continued medical education for our students, residents, faculty, and local health care professionals, focusing specifically on health issues that affect our communities.

The objectives of the annual SOM Research Symposium are the following:

• Increase knowledge of current health disparities within our communities to develop research strategies that better address health issues.
• Provide a space of open scientific discussion between the departments and colleges at UTRGV, including the School of Medicine and the clinical practitioners and residents of neighboring hospitals in the Rio Grande Valley.
• Formulate practical translational approaches from molecular findings to the clinical field and demonstrate the use of evidence-based medicine in the clinical setting.

Promote continuing a career in STEM and medicine among the population of Rio Grande Valley, which is predominantly economically disadvantaged.

For more information, please contact the Office of the Associate Dean of Research at 956-296-1926 or e-mail us at somresearchsymposium@utrgv.edu