SAPPT FUELS COVID-19 RESEARCH

Fueling transformative research through collaboration, the San Antonio Partnership for Precision Therapeutics (SAPPT) announces the funding of three more collaborative COVID-19 research efforts in San Antonio. SAPPT has awarded more than $600,000 to fund these projects, following the funding of a COVID-19 vaccine project announced in April.

Launched in 2019 to accelerate the process of getting therapies and pharmaceuticals from basic research to people in need, the SAPPT was created by four leading San Antonio research organizations, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI®), Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed), The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). SAPPT uses precision medicine principles to maximize therapy effectiveness and seeks to provide solutions for diverse populations not unlike the unparalleled population diversity of the San Antonio region.

This round of funding is made possible through USAA’s commitment of $1 million to organizations combatting COVID-19, including SAPPT. With the formal partnership and collaborative mechanism in place, SAPPT organized and issued a call for proposals and within weeks had selected three projects to fund, each a collaborative effort among the four research institutions with promising early milestones. The San Antonio Area Foundation also committed close to $100,000 to SAPPT to accelerate collaborative efforts to understand, treat and prevent COVID-19.