EDITORIAL: New UTRGV diabetes, obesity institute
For over a year now, we have been touting with excitement how important the new University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley medical school will be for our region. This past week, however, it was put into more tangible terms as it was announced that a nationally renowned genetics and infectious disease expert and her team of 22 stellar researchers were affiliating with the university and opening a new research and clinical education program here. In simpler terms, UT-RGV President Guy Bailey told a meeting with The Monitor's editorial board on Monday that he"felt like he had just won the lottery," in being able to hire Dr. Sarah Williams-Blangero as director of the South Texas Diabetes & Obesity Institute. Bailey said that since his recruitment of Williams-Blangero and her team, he has received numerous written requests from other prestigious and prominent researchers who are interested in employment here. That can only bode well for our region. And this is happening before the first medical class matriculates. Already there is national, and possibly an international buzz by experts and top professionals who want to come here and be a part of this new institution. Williams-Blangero is formerly the chair of the Department of Genetics at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio. She will start here on Oct. 16 and she tells us that she has already found a house to live in and"wants to waste no time" in getting acclimated and familiar with our area and our cultures. She said her institute will work closely with our community and will solicit large families to help participate in studies on obesity and diabetes and other conditions. She said that medical school students will help analyze data that will be integrated into their studies."There are great training opportunities for students through these resources," Williams-Blangero says. Indeed there are great opportunities for our community to learn how genetics and culture and family traits might contribute to these conditions. Such research could ultimately help our Rio Grande Valley to get fitter and healthier and to shed its image as one of the most obese places in America. Information will be shared with 120 other institutions that Williams-Blangero works with nationwide."We want everyone to achieve their full potential by connecting science with the health of the community and our promise is to make that possible today," Dr. Francisco Fernandez, dean of the UT-RGV School of Medicine, has promised."Soon South Texas will be known as the international epicenter for the research and treatment of this complex disease," a news release from the University of Texas System stated.
We hope that will one day be true.
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