How UT Health San Antonio is tackling diabetes and dementia

Catch up quick: UT Health San Antonio opened the Center for Brain Health last November — a new facility housing the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases — and launched the Center for Excellence in Diabetes in March.

Brain health

🧠 Researchers aim to detect dementia years before symptoms appear — using blood tests, advanced imaging and other diagnostics — while studying genetic drivers and potential treatments.

• Black Americans are about twice as likely as white Americans to develop Alzheimer's; Hispanics are about 1.5 times as likely, according to the Alzheimer's Association.
• In Bexar County, 13% of the 65-and-up population has Alzheimer's. In many border counties, that percentage is more than 16%, outpacing the national rate of 11%.
• "We don't know exactly why this is, but we're determined to find out," Jeremy Tanner, an assistant professor of neurology at the Biggs Institute, said in a statement.

Diabetes

🧪 The new center focuses on improving care and expanding clinical trials for type 2 diabetes.

• 1 in 6 San Antonio adults has diabetes. Of those cases, more than 95% are diagnosed with type 2, per UT Health San Antonio.

The bottom line: The centers reflect a push to grow San Antonio's role in diabetes care and Alzheimer's research.