For immediate release: Jan. 31, 2006

GALVESTON, Texas — The School of Nursing at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is reaching beyond its traditional mission of training nurses to promote bio-behavioral research by opening the first wet lab in the school’s 116-year history.

“Wet labs” are equipped with fume hoods and sinks, among other equipment. The 1,800 square foot laboratory, located on the second floor of the UTMB Allied Health Sciences and Nursing Building, features such state-of-the-art equipment as a bioimaging system, refrigerated centrifuges and high-tech freezers. Funding to renovate the space and equip the $500,000 lab came from the University of Texas System through its faculty STARS program. The program is used to attract and retain top faculty at UT institutions.

Dean Pamela G. Watson secured the funding for the lab and recruited the first nurse-scientist to work in it. “I feel that the School of Nursing has a real responsibility to help UTMB advance its research mission,” she said.

Nurse-scientist Roberta “Jeanne” Ruiz, a respected researcher studying prenatal stress in minority populations, came to UTMB last June to continue her research, funded by a $1.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. “She’s really a pioneer for us and paving the way,” Watson said.

Ruiz’s work has to do with psychoneuroimmunology, or PNI. “It’s the effect of the mind on hormones in the immune system,” she said. The purpose of her research is to improve understanding of the effect of stress on pregnancy in Hispanic women. More than 500 subjects from San Antonio and Austin are participating in the study.

Ruiz came to UTMB from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio where she received the university’s Presidential Junior Research Scholar Award for 2005. She sees a bright future for the UTMB lab and the work that will be done there, including training of future researchers. “One of the plans is to do a bio-behavior core in the doctoral program,” she said.

Watson says the lab is an effective recruitment tool. Additionally, it puts UTMB at the forefront of the national drive to expand physiological research at nursing schools. The School of Nursing is recruiting several post-doctoral researchers who are expected to continue their work in the new lab.
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
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John Koloen: (409) 772-8790 jskoloen@utmb.edu