Traditional lab-based biomechanical analysis of baseball pitchers is used as the standard to identify pitchers with mechanics that predispose them to shoulder and elbow injury. While informative, these traditional analyses have two key limitations that narrow their utility in reducing pitching injuries.

There is a growing recognition that a large proportion of SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals continue to experience a broad range of symptoms after recovering from the initial bout of the COVID-19 illness. These patients are colloquially referred to as “COVID long haulers,” and the illness as “Long COVID.” There are over 35 million COVID survivors in U.S. and 3.5 million estimated in Texas. Long COVID is a national and even a global public health issue.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the most common cause of cognitive and behavioral deficits in the U.S and worldwide. Most TBIs are classified as mild-TBI and concussion (C) that are associated with minor symptoms and microscopic damage with no observable pathology on imaging scans, and thus are challenging to be diagnosed. Equally important are asymptomatic sub-concussive (SC) head exposures that when left undiagnosed put the subjects at higher risk of repeated exposures, resulting in cognitive declines and initiation of chronic neurodegenerative disease.

Collaborative teams that include Southwest Research Institute staff received two of six recently awarded San Antonio Medical Foundation (SAMF) bioscience grants. SwRI, in collaboration with UT Health San Antonio and University Health System, received a nearly $200,000 grant to develop machine learning algorithms for cancer detection.

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) are working to synthesize novel highly potent derivatives of the antimalarial drug artemisinin with the goal of creating a powerful, cost-effective malaria treatment. Led by Dr. Shawn Blumberg of SwRI’s Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division and Dr. Doug Frantz of the Department of Chemistry within UTSA’s College of Sciences, the work is supported by a $125,000 grant from the Connecting through Research Partnerships (CONNECT) program.

The Particle Science and Technology Laboratory at Southwest Research Institute has expanded its services to include mask testing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The testing will help health care and other organizations evaluate respirators, surgical face masks and filtration materials to ensure they meet particle filtration standards.

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.

Using Department of Defense supercomputers, Southwest Research Institute is virtually screening millions of drug compounds to search for and test possible treatment options for the novel coronavirus 2019. The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine has awarded SwRI a $1.9 million, one-year contract to support efforts to develop a COVID-19 treatment.

The San Antonio Partnership for Precision Therapeutics (SAPPT) along with the Vaccine Development Center of San Antonio (VDCOSA) received a $1 million donation for critical COVID-19 medical research and equipment.

USAA and The USAA Foundation, Inc. officials announced the donation as part of an over $6 million gift benefiting local organizations and military families affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

The San Antonio Partnership for Precision Therapeutics has awarded $200,000 for a collaborative study to develop a novel vaccine to combat COVID-19. Within days of the Stay Home/Work Safe directive issued by the City of San Antonio, the San Antonio Partnership for Precision Therapeutics (SAPPT) organized and issued a call for proposals to combat COVID-19.