UTEP receives $5M grant for imaging and behavioral neuroscience facility

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — The University of Texas at El Paso received a $5 million grant to build an imaging and behavioral neuroscience facility.

National Institutes of Health provided thee grant for the facility which will be built on the first floor of the Interdisciplinary Research Building, according to a news release from UTEP.

UTEP also committed an additional $1.5 million to purchase new, high-end imaging equipment for the facility.

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The combined new space and equipment will allow the University to study health disparities related to cancer and neurological disorders that affect Hispanic people.

“The research UTEP faculty and students will conduct at the new facility will have a lasting impact on the well-being of our community,” UTEP President Heather Wilson said. “This new lab builds on UTEP’s nationally recognized capacity to study health disparities.”

The new facility will provide high-capacity behavioral testing and high-resolution imaging, UTEP stated.

Members of the interdisciplinary research group behind the new lab said it helps position the University at the leading edge of biomedical research associated with pre-clinical models of Hispanic health disparities.

Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority in the United States, and suffer from extensive health disparities and inequities,” said Michael Kenney, Ph.D., associate dean for research in the College of Science and deputy director of the UTEP Border Biomedical Research Center. “UTEP has aggressively expanded research initiatives focused on reducing health disparities. We are addressing the biomedical mechanisms contributing to these disparities.

Kenney said the new facility will be the first of its kind in the region and will strengthen collaborative efforts with two regional medical schools that supported UTEP’s application for NIH funding – Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso and The Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The new facility is expected to open in the spring of 2024.

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