First Director of South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute Announced for UTRGV
Leaders from The University of Texas System and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley announced the creation of the South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute at a press conference Monday, Oct. 13 at Main at The University of Texas at Brownsville. "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," said Dr. Francisco Fernandez, Dean of the UTRGV School of Medicine. "Today, we take another step towards making that a reality." The institute starting Thursday, Oct. 16 will be led by Dr. Sarah Williams-Blangero, formerly the Chair of the Department of Genetics at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio. Williams-Blangero has a master's degree and doctoral degree in biological anthropology from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Williams-Blangero will bring more than 20 doctoral-level researchers and support staff to work throughout the Rio Grande Valley on many facets of diabetes and obesity. The group has attracted more than $200 million in National Institutes of Health funding since 2000. "My colleagues and I, we are delighted that we are moving to this new stage of our careers and this new stage of our research program," said Williams-Blangero. "We feel this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to become involved with a brand new medical school and to focus our research on the local community in addition to having an impact on some of the most pressing public health problems facing our whole nation today."