San Antonio Comparative Biology of Aging Center (SACBAC)

Director: Steven N. Austad, PhD
The San Antonio Comparative Biology of Aging Center (SACBAC) is amulti-institutional research center established to promote andfacilitate basic aging research. It employs nontraditional,exceptionally informative, animal species to investigate cellular andmolecular mechanisms that modulate the rate of aging. Participatinginstitutions are the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA),the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), and the SouthwestFoundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR).

SACBAC Center Activities

Education

SACBAC supports seminars and workshops in the comparative biology of aging, including an annual March workshop at Round Top, Texas.

Seed Grants

The Center gives seed grants to faculty from participating institutions of up to $10,000 for the purpose of generating preliminary data for full grant proposals to government and private agencies and foundations. Contact Steven Austad, 210-562-6011 or austad@uthscsa.edu for more information. 

Research Resource Enhancement

Cells and tissues from animal species of exceptional gerontological interest are often hard to come by. The Center maintains nontransformed, early passage cell lines from many mammal species for sharing with faculty from member institutions. The Center also stores frozen tissues of diverse species and maintains a contact list of investigators from other institutions that have access to samples from nontraditional species. Contact Steven Austad, 210-562-6011 or austad@uthscsa.edu for more information.