UT Southwestern Medical Center accomplished another year of significant achievement, strategic expansion, and impactful leadership recruitment in 2024, advancing our mission to promote health and a healthy society to enable individuals to achieve their full potential. Examples stretch across all three mission areas: education, research, and patient care. In addition, we launched our first national advertising campaign, Follow Your Spark, which was seen extensively in 10 major media markets and is enhancing our recruitment initiatives to attract new talent – both faculty and staff – in science and medicine to UTSW.

Learn more below about what UT Southwestern has achieved over the past year and our vision for the future. The examples highlighted are just a sampling of accomplishments across all areas of the institution in 2024.

UT Southwestern’s founding as a medical school has evolved beyond UT Southwestern Medical School into three additional schools to train future leaders in all phases of biomedical education: UT Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, UT Southwestern School of Health Professions, and its newest, Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health. Attracting and retaining top educators, clinicians, and scientists in their fields is paramount to our mission as an academic medical center, and in 2024, we also welcomed three new Department Chairs and two new Senior Associate Deans.

Leaders appointed to UTSW this year include, from left: (top row) Julie Pfeiffer, Ph.D., Antonia F. Chen, M.D., M.B.A., Tarek Rajji, M.D., (bottom row) Sherry C. Huang, M.D., and Alyssa H. Hasty, Ph.D.

Learn more below:

• Innovative virologist Pfeiffer appointed Chair of Microbiology
• Hip and knee replacement expert appointed Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery
• A UTSW homecoming for new Chair of Psychiatry
• Cancer researcher Huang aims to chart new era of education as Senior Associate Dean
• Hasty recruited for Vice Provost and Senior Associate Dean role

A third grader from Biomedical Preparatory at UT Southwestern experiments with “ballistic plastic” to make a pretend wound to place on a “patient” while visiting the UTSW Simulation Center. The school, which opened in 2022, represents a unique partnership between UTSW and the Dallas Independent School District to expose students at an early age to the wonders of science and medicine.

Forging unique partnerships and exploring new fields ripe for training and investigation sets UTSW apart. Biomedical Preparatory at UT Southwestern is a perfect example, a school for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students operated by the Dallas Independent School District in collaboration with UTSW that celebrated its first year of operation in 2024. The year also marked an inaugural UT System symposium to examine artificial intelligence use in medicine. Learn more below.

• Spreading its wings: Biomedical Preparatory at UT Southwestern celebrates its first year as partner DISD honors Charles Ginsburg, M.D., by renaming original school building in his honor
• UT System symposium examines how AI can create ‘big solutions to big problems’

At a UT Southwestern reception, Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., holds the Lasker Award he received. The Lasker Awards, often called “America's Nobels,” are regarded as the country’s preeminent biomedical research prize.

UT Southwestern is renowned worldwide for its research expertise. Our institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 25 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 24 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. Those impressive numbers grew in some of those categories this past year, plus four faculty members were elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation. In addition, a major award went to Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Biology, who received the prestigious Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his discovery of the cGas enzyme, which senses invading pathogens and triggers the body’s innate immune system. Learn more below.

• UT Southwestern biochemist Zhijian ‘James’ Chen, Ph.D., earns prestigious Lasker Award
• Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D., and David Mangelsdorf, Ph.D., are UTSW’s 23rd and 24th members of the NAM, the most of any institution in Texas
• UTSW pharmacologist Collins named HHMI Investigator
• Four UTSW faculty elected to elite research society

The Green Center is led by Director W. Lee Kraus, Ph.D., (right), who closely collaborates with Catherine Y. Spong, M.D., Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The research conducted at our Centers, made possible with the generous support of our donors, is transformational in advancing science, and this past year was no different. In 2024, The Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences celebrated its 50th anniversary, while the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development welcomed Ralph DeBerardinis, M.D., Ph.D., as its new Director. Learn more below.

• The Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences celebrates a growing list of achievements
• DeBerardinis appointed Director of Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development

Drs. Russell A. DeBose-Boyd and Vincent Tagliabracci were each honored with prestigious awards for work in biological sciences this year.

In 2024, two UT Southwestern scientists were awarded grants from the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology (TAMEST) for exceptional work in their fields. Vincent Tagliabracci, Ph.D., received the 2024 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Biological Sciences for broadening the understanding of pseudokinases, while Russell DeBose-Boyd, Ph.D., was awarded the Hill Prize in Biological Sciences in recognition of his cholesterol research. Find out more in the story links below.

• UT Southwestern molecular geneticist wins Hill Prize from TAMEST
• UT Southwestern molecular biologist to receive O’Donnell Award from TAMEST

UTSW is among the nation’s highest-performing hospitals based on quality of care across 15 specialties and 20 procedures and conditions.

UT Southwestern’s Radiation Oncology campus in Fort Worth will bring advanced cancer therapies including the city’s first MRI-guided precision radiation treatment.

Efforts to improve or expand patient care are always top of mind. The UT Southwestern Health System celebrated the 10-year anniversary of William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, which for the eighth consecutive year was ranked among the nation’s top hospitals. To meet the growing demands for cancer treatment in Tarrant County and surrounding areas, cancer services will expand to a new Radiation Oncology campus that will house Fort Worth’s first MRI-guided precision radiation treatment. Learn more in the story links below:

• UT Southwestern once again ranked best hospital in DFW
• Over its first 10 years, Clements University Hospital sparked a clinical transformation at UT Southwestern
• UT Southwestern brings first-of-its-kind radiation oncology to new $177M campus in Fort Worth Medical District

The Texas Behavioral Health Center at UT Southwestern, slated to open in 2025, will help fill the need for more inpatient psychiatric beds in North Texas. At top is an artist’s rendering and beneath is the actual hospital under construction in early December.

To meet the region’s rising needs for mental health services, construction of the new Texas Behavioral Health Center at UT Southwestern, the first state mental health hospital in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, remains on track. The adult wing is scheduled to be completed by late spring/early summer 2025, followed by the pediatric wing approximately six months thereafter. Treatment of adult patients could begin later in the year, pending timing and adoption by the Texas Legislature of funding requests submitted by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission for the hospital’s operations. To promote the health and healing of patients, the new hospital will offer innovative high-quality clinical programs not found elsewhere in the state psychiatric hospital system. These will include a Medical/Psychiatric Unit (MPU), also known as a Complexity Intervention Unit (CIU), designed to deliver optimum hospital care to patients who have concomitant medical and psychiatric needs; and a Partial Hospitalization Program (PHP) for individuals stepping down from inpatient care but still needing intensive, sustained support and therapy.

Hilda Loria, M.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern, and Amelia, a patient who has been receiving medical care at Children’s Health since being born prematurely, were featured at the groundbreaking for the new pediatric campus.

Caring for the youngest patients takes a special heart. UT Southwestern’s long-standing partnership with Children’s Health rose to a new level with construction beginning on a joint $5 billion pediatric campus that will serve as a hub for innovation, academic research, and training. Generous philanthropists are aiding the effort, including donations of $100 million from The Rees-Jones Foundation, $100 million from Jean and Mack Pogue, and $25 million from the Hamon Charitable Foundation, among others. Learn more about this project and the award-winning pediatric care that UTSW faculty provide in story links below.

• Children’s Health and UT Southwestern announce plans for transformative new pediatric campus in Dallas’ Southwestern Medical District
• Children’s Health and UT Southwestern break ground on new Dallas pediatric campus, announce $100 million donation from The Rees-Jones Foundation
• Children’s Health and UT Southwestern receive $100 million donation from the Pogue family for new $5 billion Dallas pediatric campus
• $25 million donation from Hamon Charitable Foundation will help UT Southwestern, Children’s Health develop joint pediatric campus
• UTSW Pediatric Group’s exceptional care recognized among nation’s best

Eleven UTSW clinicians were honored for their exceptional contributions at the seventh annual ceremony recognizing compassion and dedication to patient care. The top award went to Miguel A. Vazquez, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Clinical Chief, Division of Nephrology, who received the Patricia and William L. Watson Jr., M.D. Award for Excellence in Clinical Medicine.

Christi Nguyen, D.N.P., RN, NEA-BC, CENP, FACHE, was among 221 international nursing leaders recognized this year by the American Academy of Nursing.

UT Southwestern’s leaders in clinical excellence – from our physicians to our nurses and advanced practice providers – continue to be recognized for their exceptional dedication and accomplishments. Learn more about those who go above and beyond in the stories below.

• Clinical excellence takes center stage at inspiring event
• 10 UTSW RNs win D Magazine’s 2024 Excellence in Nursing Awards
• UTSW’s Nguyen named to AAN’s latest Class of Fellows
• Recognizing UT Southwestern’s outstanding advanced practice providers