Honoring Dr. George W. Williams II, MD
September 5, 2025
The UTHealth Houston Institute of Perioperative Medicine (IPM) is advancing safer surgery by uncovering disease mechanisms, developing new therapies, and testing innovations through clinical trials. By uniting AI, bioinformatics, and cross-disciplinary research, it is positioning UTHealth Houston as a national leader in perioperative medicine.
Vision
The UTHealth Houston Institute of Perioperative Medicine will be the national leader in scientific discovery, research training, and transformation of clinical care in anesthesia, perioperative, pain, and critical medicine.
Mission
Promote groundbreaking research aimed at understanding the underlying disease mechanisms and immunology of perioperative organ injury, discover novel treatment targets or interventions for perioperative organ injury, conduct clinical trials in perioperative patients, and advance excellence in clinical outcomes research and patient care within perioperative medicine, while championing education and training of the next generation of scientists and physician-scientists within this field.
Research Spotlight
2025 Nobel Prize of Physiology and Medicine
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi for their groundbreaking discoveries on peripheral immune tolerance. It explains how these scientists discovered the role of regulatory T cells (Tregs) and the Foxp3 gene in maintaining immune system balance, thereby preventing autoimmune diseases. Their work transformed immunology and paved the way for new therapies targeting autoimmune disorders, cancer, and transplant rejection.
Link Between Heart Attack Severity and Circadian Rhythm Unveiled by UTHealth Houston Researchers
A joint study from the Departments of Anesthesiology and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, published in Nature, shows that heart attack severity depends on the time of day, with morning events causing more damage than afternoon ones. Senior author Dr. Holger Eltzschig, MD, PhD, and his team identified a BMAL1-HIF2A protein pathway that regulates heart healing, pointing to circadian-based therapies and surgical strategies that could improve recovery.
News & Announcements
Collaborative research brings bench findings to patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome
August 26, 2025
Recruitment of Co-Center Director of Center for Aging and Cognitive Dysfunction – Dr. Zhongcong Xie, MD, PhD
June 17, 2025
Partnering Schools
McGovern Medical School McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics