The program is located at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) campus on Galveston island, a small island 50 miles south of Houston, Texas.
UTMB, a component of the University of Texas System, was established in 1891 and is the oldest health care science institution in Texas. Occupying 85 acres on the East End of Galveston Island, the Medical Branch includes more than 70 major buildings that house five schools, a sophisticated health care complex, and large research enterprise.
UTMB places major emphasis on basic and clinical research, providing more than 1.15 million square feet of space specifically designed for research. UTMB has invested considerable resources to develop areas of research strength across the campus and to establish the infrastructure necessary to facilitate basic, clinical, and translational research in the 21st century.
Research at UTMB is multidisciplinary, with basic scientists, clinicians and students working together throughout its Schools, Institutes, Centers, and departments to share information, facilities and other resources. UTMB was the first academic health care facility in the US to open a BSL4 laboratory, and is now home to one of two national laboratories in the country. The Galveston National Laboratory (GNL), academically housed in the Institute for Human Infections and opened in 2011, provides high and maximum containment laboratories as part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease Biodefense network. Work performed through independent research programs and collaborative efforts seek to improve understanding of dangerous pathogens that cause human disease and to develop diagnostics, vaccines, and other medical countermeasures to defeat them.
In its commitment to basic, clinical, and translational research, UTMB houses one of the largest research libraries in the southwest, with 596 research awards in FY2022. Total grant funding for FY2022 was $236 million, an increase of $74 million from the previous fiscal year. UTMB funds additional research-related projects yearly from the John Sealy Memorial Endowment Fund (corpus $97 million), which supports general biomedical research projects and programs; the McLaughlin Fellowship Fund (corpus $18 million), which supports training fellowships in infectious diseases and immunology; the Blocker Fund, which supports students in the M.D./Ph.D. Program; and the Herzog Foundation Endowment, which supports students in the Clinical Science Program and M.D./Ph.D. students interested in translational research. UTMB has 17 federally funded and two local endowment-funded research training grants. UTMB has over 1M square feet of space designated for research. These facilities include the eleven-story, state-of-the-art Blocker Medical Research Building, which houses many specially designed core resource laboratories. In addition to its institutes, UTMB supports multidisciplinary centers; thus, the very atmosphere of the university is permeated with collaborative activities capable of attacking problems with a breadth and depth of approach not readily accessible in many other U.S. institutions.
UTMB’s mission to improve health for the people of Texas and around the world is directly supported through the ethical and compliant use of research animals. In support of education, and research missions of the university, the dynamic animal care and use program ensures compliant humane treatment of all research animals.
UTMB's Animal Resources Center, which encompasses more than 125,000 square feet in 9 facilities, is responsible for provision of care to all vertebrate animals on campus. The ARC provides a comprehensive program of veterinary care, animal husbandry, technical advice and assistance and facilities to advance research involving animals on the UTMB campus. The ARC is fully AAALAC International accredited, PHS assured and USDA approved. Housing and care is provided for all common research species from amphibians and rodents to primates, sheep and swine. Biocontainment housing is available up to animal biosafety level 4 (ABSL 4).
UTMB operates to comply with the USDA Animal Welfare Act (Public Law 89-544) as amended by PL91-579 (1970), PL94-279 (1976), and 45 CFR37618 (6-30-80); Health Research Extension Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-158); follows the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (revised September 1986); and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals DHEW (NIH) 85-23 revised 1985. UTMB is a registered Research Facility under the Animal Welfare Act. It has a current assurance on file with the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW), in compliance with NIH Policy. The ARC follows all standards for AAALAC and institutional IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) compliance, and provides animal care and holding space to support a wide range of animal models, surgery, and research.