Border Health Research
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Charles C. Miller III, Ph.D.Professor and Chair, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Associate Dean for Research |
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Here at the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, Texas, our programs are dedicated to improving health through discovery of basic mechanisms of disease, development of new treatments, and translation of research findings to innovative medical practice. An active research environment helps to provide the scholarly milieu that is essential to high-quality medical education and the economic stimulus that can affect an entire region, even a nation. We are a new and growing institution, and as such are developing focused programs that emphasize areas of particular need in our community, which is more than 80% Hispanic. Programmatic, trans-disciplinary Centers of Excellence in Cancer, Infectious Diseases, and Neurosciences are now thriving, and a Center of Excellence in Diabetes and Obesity is in development. Major investments have been made in core laboratories in Genomics, Proteomics, Histology and Cytometry, through the acquisition of state-of-the-art equipment and facilities and experienced team members to staff them. In an example of research focus, we have made particularly significant investments in genomic deep-sequence research capacity. El Paso is an exceptional place to study the role of genetic factors in health and disease, because the population is relatively geographically isolated and geographically stable. Local families tend to be large and span many generations. These community characteristics create an opportunity for our scientists to understand diseases that burden Hispanic families in a way that few places are able to offer.
On behalf of all our research community, I extend our welcome and our gratitude for your interest in these exciting programs. Sincerely, Charles C. Miller, III, PhD Professor and Chair, Department of Biomedical Sciences Associate Dean for Research Associate Dean for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences |
Focus on a scientist
Researcher Name Harvard and Texas Tech researchers halt spread of HIV with RNAi Main Findings: Using a novel method to deliver small molecules called siRNAs into T cells, researchers dramatically suppressed HIV in the first-ever animal model that mirrors progression of the disease in humans. The siRNAs knocked down three key genes and kept the infection from spreading in mice containing human immune cells infected with the virus. |