Updates + Accolades

New Pediatric Campus Breaks Ground in Dallas

In February 2024, UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Health℠ broke ground on a new $5 billion pediatric health campus in Dallas’ Southwestern Medical District.

Encompassing more than 4.7 million square feet – including a pediatric hospital as its centerpiece – the new pediatric campus will draw upon the extensive academic resources and collaborative, leading-edge research underway at UTSW. The innovative design of facilities – next door to UTSW’s globally ranked research hub – will help recruit leading pediatric clinicians, established and emerging researchers, residents, fellows, medical students, and the most talented individuals in nursing, medical technology, and related health professions.

Drs. Arteaga and Mangelsdorf Elected to National Academy of Medicine

Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D., and David Mangelsdorf, Ph.D., were formally elected to the National Academy of Medicine, one of the highest honors in health and medicine.

Dr. Arteaga, Director of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Dean of Oncology Programs, is widely recognized for innovative breast cancer research that has led to the development of molecularly targeted therapies, including PI3K inhibitors for patients with breast cancer.

Dr. Mangelsdorf, Chair of Pharmacology and Professor of Biochemistry, has made significant contributions to lipid biology, with discoveries that could lead to new therapies for diseases including diabetes, obesity, cancer, and parasitism.

Pharmacologist Named Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator

James J. Collins III, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pharmacology at UT Southwestern Medical Center who leads groundbreaking research into the parasitic disease schistosomiasis, has been named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Second only to malaria as the most devastating parasitic disease, schistosomiasis progresses as female parasitic worms lay millions of eggs inside the host, causing debilitating inflammatory responses and scarring as eggs get trapped in the liver, intestines, or even the brain.

Dr. Collins, who joined UT Southwestern in 2014 as an Endowed Scholar, was the first to set up the culture conditions to monitor the reproductive cycle of the worms without having to pass them through a host. In doing so, he has transformed the understanding of schistosomes by discovering and isolating the pheromone, or signal, that male worms use to control female sexual development and egg production. Experts think that understanding and isolating this signal provides a great new direction for the field and may bring relief to the millions of people the tropical disease affects each year in developing nations.