VelocityTX announced Tuesday that the U.S. Air Force’s 59th Medical Wing, the largest and most comprehensive in the Air Force, has opened a research office at its East Side innovation campus in San Antonio.
Formerly known as the Texas Research and Technology Foundation, VelocityTX is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing San Antonio’s bioscience industry. This new collaboration is part of VelocityTX’s ongoing effort to connect military medical research organizations with private-sector innovators, according to a news release.
The 59th Medical Wing is based at the Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center on Lackland Air Force Base, but will conduct research at a satellite office inside the newly opened VelocityTX Co-Labs facility, with some staff also working in private offices at the adjacent VelocityTX Innovation Center on East Houston Street.
The wing’s research at this lab focuses on understanding the cellular-level effects of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), which are caused by external forces such as blows to the head.
The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center reported nearly 414,000 TBIs among U.S. service members worldwide between 2000 and late 2019. TBIs are considered one of the most prevalent battle wounds among veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, according to a peer-reviewed study published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
“We’re seeing increasing demand from our military partners to work closely with the private sector,” said Rene Dominguez, president and CEO of VelocityTX. “This partnership helps facilitate collaboration, drive innovation, create jobs, and generate investment in San Antonio’s growing bioscience industry.”
The 59th Medical Wing joins other key military organizations at VelocityTX, including the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research and the Defense Health Agency.
Debra Niemeyer, chief scientist for the wing, emphasized the importance of these collaborations for advancing military medical research.
“By working alongside private sector innovators, we can more quickly harness new technologies to address critical capability gaps in military medicine, benefiting both the armed forces and national security,” she said.
In a previous interview with the San Antonio Report, Dominguez shared that VelocityTX’s ultimate goal is to transform approximately 70 acres of underdeveloped or industrial land on the East Side into a mixed-use innovation district centered around biosciences and military medical research.
San Antonio’s healthcare and biosciences sectors already represent the city’s largest economic driver, contributing an estimated $44 billion annually.
The military also plays a significant role in the local economy, with a 2021 report from the Texas Comptroller’s Office estimating Joint Base San Antonio’s economic impact at $39.1 billion.
