FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS CONTACT
March 23, 2020 Brenda Rangel (956) 544-8352
PRESS RELEASE: Vela Announces $400K Grant Award to TAMUK
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Filemon Vela (D-TX) announced that the US. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded a $413,738 grant to the National Natural Toxins Research Center at Texas A&M Kingsville (TAMUK). The grant will allow for research on toxins found in snake venom their effect on people who have suffered from a snake bite.
“Texas A&M Kingsville continues to make great strides in advancing academic research,” said Congressman Vela. “I am happy to see that HHS has awarded the university with these funds to advance this life-saving work.”
“Snakebites represent a substantial global health challenge that causes severe injury to 2.7 million people and claims an estimated 125,000 lives each year,” said Dr. Mark A. Hussey, President of Texas A&M University-Kingsville. “The National Natural Toxins Research Center at Texas A&M University-Kingsville is dedicated to the discovery of medically important toxins found in snake venoms. This funding is critical to our ability to understand more about what happens when a person suffers a snakebite, while engaging underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students in innovative molecular toxinology research.”
For more information about The National Natural Toxins Research Center at TAMUK’s mission, visit http://www.tamuk.edu/artsci/departments/nntrc/index.html