Retiree organization names 2026 seed grant award winner
(Photo by UTHealth Houston)
Jiaming Liang, PhD, assistant professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, won the 2026 Endowment for Healthy Aging Junior Faculty Program grant award for his research proposal, “Advancing ComCare: From an AI-Enabled Dementia Caregiver Support Prototype to Usability Testing.”
The $10,000 seed grant is awarded by The University of Texas Houston Retiree Organization each year to one junior faculty member for research related to aging, including clinical, basic science, health services, policy, or caregiver-focused studies.
“The UTHRO endowment for healthy aging is UT Houston Retiree Organization’s mechanism to say thank you for our long careers at UTHealth Houston,” said Barbara Kelly, retiree organization president. “The annual endowment award embraces the membership’s lasting commitment to its motto of ‘seniors helping seniors.’”
Liang’s research project
Liang developed ComCare, an AI-enabled tool that helps caregivers use voice or text to record what is happening, organize questions and concerns, and keep information over time so they can be more prepared when communicating with healthcare providers.
Chosen out of 13 applications and three finalists, the one-year project proposed by Liang will move the ComCare protoype into a university-managed online system and invite nine to 10 caregivers to use it independently at home for two weeks. Researchers will learn what works, what is difficult, and what needs to be changed so they can prepare ComCare for larger studies in the future.
“Family caregivers are doing incredibly complex work every day, often trying to track changes at home, understand health information, and communicate those changes to healthcare providers," Liang said. “With ComCare, we hope to use AI to make that work easier and better connect dementia care at home with healthcare. I am very grateful for UTHRO’s support, which will help us move ComCare from a working prototype to real-world testing with family caregivers.”
About the endowment
The endowment was established in 2016 through UTHealth Houston and supports patient care, education, and research related to aging through annual grants. The UTHealth Houston Institute on Aging, as custodian of the account, assists in the grant proposal process. As of September 2026, the endowment has reached over $150,000 and has awarded $42,000 in grants.
