The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute College of Sciences

Current Funding

Grants Awarded to Investigators in the South Texas Diabetes and Obesity Institute

Principal Investigator

Project Title

Funding Period

Funding Agency

Grant Number

Total Funding

Gladys Maestre, M.D., Ph.D. Principal Investigator

Michael Mahaney, Ph.D. Research Education Core Leader

John Blangero, Ph.D. Genomics Core Leader

Sarah Williams-Blangero, Ph.D. Population Neuroscience Core Leader

Marcio Almeida, Ph.D. Scholar

South Texas Alzheimers Disease Research Center (STAC) 09/01/2021 - 06/30/2026 NIMH P30 AG066546 $1,824,602.00
Marcio Almeida, Ph.D. Principal Investigator Identification of Endophenotypes Associated with Alzheimer’s Disease Progression in a Hispanic Population 08/01/2022 - 07/31/2025 NIH R21 AG077501 $404,953.00
John L. VandeBerg, Ph.D. Principal Investigator Creation of Knockout Laboratory Opossums 04/21/2023 - 04/20/2026 NIH R21 OD026625 $407,000.00
John L. VandeBerg, Ph.D. Principal Investigator Gestation Bioanalysis 05/15/2023 - 04/30/2028 Colossal Biosciences Inc. Sponsored Research Agreement $397,840.00
John Blangero, Ph.D. Principal Investigator UTRGV Subcontract Shared Genetic and Environmental Influences on Age-Related Hearing Loss, Cognitive Decline, and Dementia Risk 08/15/2023 - 06/30/2028 NIH R01 AG078423 $1,714,377.00

Gladys Maestre, M.D., Ph.D. Principal Investigator

John Blangero, Ph.D. Analysis Core Leader

Michael Mahaney, Ph.D. Research Education Core Leader

Rio Grande Valley Alzheimer's Resource Center for Minority Aging Research: Partnerships for Aging 08/15/2023 - 07/31/2028 NIH P30 AG059305 $1,696,355.00
John Blangero, Ph.D. Contact Principal Investigator at UTRGV
Sarah Williams-Blangero, Ph.D. Principal Investigator
Interactions of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Genetic Variation on the Risk of Cognitive Decline and Alzheimer’s Disease in Ancestral and Admixed Populations 09/01/2023 - 01/31/2026 NIH U19 AG076581 $3,231,440.00
Joanne Curran, PH.D. Principal Investigator Assessing the Influence of the Human Lipidome on Risk of Diabetes in a Minority Population (Supplement) 09/07/2023 - 08/31/2028 NIH R01 DK127636 $369,720.00
Joanne Curran, Ph.D. Contact Principal Investigator
John Blangero, Ph.D. Principal Investigator
Jacob Galan, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Satish Kumar, Ph.D. Principal Investigator
Jason Parsons, Ph.D. Principal Investigator
Experimental Cellular Approaches to Genotype × Environment Interaction 09/18/2023 - 05/31/2028 NIH RM1 GM149403 $8,007,078.00
Sarah Williams-Blangero, Ph.D. Principal Investigator UTRGV Center for Genome Research 09/30/2023 - 05/31/2028 NIH U54 HG013247 $10,619,627.00
Mark Kos, Ph.D. Principal Investigator UTRGV Subcontract DNA Methylation Signatures of Alzheimer's Disease in Aged Astrocytes 07/01/2024 - 06/30/2025 NIH R21 AG085428 $29,313.00
John L. VandeBerg, Ph.D. Principal Investigator Individually Ventilated Cage System for Laboratory Opossum Vivarium 09/01/2024 - 06/30/2028 NIH R24 OD037714 $349,788.00
Tom Howard, M.D., Ph.D.
Contact Principal Investigator
Sarah Williams-Blangero, Ph.D. Principal Investigator
Omic Approaches to Factor VIII Inhibitor Development in Hemophilia Patients of Mexican Descent 09/18/2024 - 08/31/2028 NIH R01 HL169763 $2,701,976.00
Mark Kos, Ph.D. Principal Investigator Preclinical Modeling of Neural Regulatory Networks in Baboon Epilepsy 12/01/2024 - 11/30/2026 NIH R56 NS135399 $65,906.00
John Blangero, Ph.D. Contact Principal Investigator
Jacob Galan, Ph.D. Principal Investigator
Experimental Cellular Approaches to Genotype × Environment Interaction (Supplement) 09/01/2024 -08/31/2025 NIH RM1 GM149403-02S1 $122,685.00
Anderson Winkler, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc. Contact Principal Investigator Enhancing PALM with novel statistical methods, cloud integration, parallelization, and imaging standards. 09/01/2025 - 08/31/2028 NIH R01 MH139547 $1,540,922.00
Anderson Winkler, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc. Contact Principal Investigator Understanding Heterogeneity Across PTSD, MDD, and Anxiety by Leveraging Large-Scale Multimodal Neuroimaging Data Sets 07/31/2025 - 04/30/2030 NIH R01 MH138425 $102,350.00
Ms. Natasha Garcia-Rodriguez Fellow Joanne Curran, Ph.D. Sponsor CTSA Predoctoral T32 at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Fellowship 01/01/2026 - 12/31/2026 NIH T32 TR004905 $45,498.00