Award for Innovation in Healthcare & Bioscience

Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024

Accepting nominations for national innovators for the 2024 awardee until March 31, 2024.

Honoring Leaders of Healthcare Innovation

The BioMedSA Award for Innovation in Healthcare and Bioscience celebrates local and national innovators in the healthcare and bioscience industry, including patient care, education, research and development, leadership, public policy and medical technology.

Event Details

Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024

5:30 – 7:00pm
Networking / Cocktails

7:00 – 8:00pm
Dinner & Award Presentation

8:00 – 9:00pm
Networking

Members: $200/person
Non-Members: $250/person

Phoenician Ballroom
6070 Babcock Rd
San Antonio, TX 78240

Get directions

Business attire requested

2024 Innovation Award Remarks

San Antonio Medical Foundation
UT Health San Antonio

2024 BioMedSA Award Honoree

2024 BioMedSA Award for Innovation in Healthcare and Bioscience

Dr. Jason S. McLellan

Recognizing achievements in mRNA research and development, BioMedSA honors leader in molecular bioscience

The development of COVID-19 interventions was a pinnacle example of decades of basic science developments across the world coming together for one purpose – to save lives. Before therapies and vaccines could be developed, the basic understandings of viral structure, disease development and progression or pathogenesis and infection control was critical.

 McLellan’s contributions in structure-based vaccine design led to pivotal learnings necessary for the development of trailblazing cures and antibody therapies for COVID-19, as well as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Ebola. His work helped define the structure of the human coronavirus spike protein. He was the first to define and publish the spike protein 3-D structure of SARS-CoV-2 (Science), a critical piece necessary for vaccine development. In addition, all COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the United States use a modified spike protein that contains the engineering adaptations McLellan’s team developed in 2016. This modified protein elicits a robust immune response that contributed to the high efficacy of the vaccines.

His work in SARS-CoV-2 was influenced significantly by his earlier work in RSV, where in 2013 he was runner-up for the Science magazine’s “Breakthrough of the Year.” McLellan was the first to engineer an RSV antigen that elicited a high concentration of neutralizing antibodies in preclinical studies. These early studies led to the development of RSV vaccines approved in 2023 and in use today. 

McLellan received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2009 before becoming Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He joined the faculty at UT
Austin as Associate Professor of Molecular Biosciences in 2018.

2024 Sponsors

Presenting Sponsors

San Antonio Medical Foundation logo
logo-ut health white background

Diamond Sponsors

logo-ut health white background

Gold Sponsor

logo-biobridge global
logo-university health
Texas Biomedical
logo-UTSA-logo

Silver Sponsors

logo-mission pharmacal
logo-SwRI-Logo-2
logo-st marys
logo-Greene Associates wht
logo-CPS Energy
logo-Solventum wht

Bronze Sponsors

Alamo Colleges District

BDO

Health Cell

Henry M. Jackson Foundation

Methodist Healthcare

Progenerative Medical

San Antonio Chamber of Commerce

SpawGlass

Texas Research & Technology Foundation

Recipients

  • 2023 – Sunil Ahuja, M.D., infectious disease and immune system researcher
  • 2021/2 – Robert Ward, Ph.D., serial biomaterials inventor and entrepreneur
  • 2020 – Rena Bizios, Ph.D., research in cell-material interactions and biomedical engineering pioneer
  • 2019 – Stephen Badylak, D.V.M., Ph.D., M.D., discovered the use of the extracellular matrix 
  • 2018 – Alan Peterson, Ph.D., ABPP, the nation’s foremost research leader in combat-related PTSD 
  • 2017 – Leonard Pinchuk, Ph.D., D.Sc. prolific biomaterials scientist and inventor  
  • 2016 – George E. Peoples, Jr., M.D., FACS, cancer immunotherapy pioneer   
  • 2015 – W.E. (William Esco) Moerner, Ph.D., Nobel Prize-winning chemist 
  • 2014 – Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., nationally-renowned pediatric transplant surgeon
  • 2013 – Robert S. Langer, Sc.D., world-renowned engineer, inventor and entrepreneur in tissue engineering and biomaterials
  • 2012 – Larry Miller, M.D., pioneer of  leading intraosseous vascular access technology
  • 2011 – Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., biologist and inventor of numerous scientific instruments
  • 2010 – C. Mauli Agrawal, Ph.D., founded biomedical engineering degree program at UTSA
  • 2009 – Dean Kamen, internationally acclaimed inventor and founder of DEKA and FIRST
  • 2008 – Robert Campbell, M.D., Melvin Smith, M.D., and Kaye Wilkins, M.D., pediatric orthopedic inventors
  • 2007 – Karen Davis, Ph.D., children’s health assessment program  
  • 2006 – Julio Palmaz, M.D., inventor of the first commercially successful intravascular stent

Lifetime Achievement Award

  • 2023 – William Henrich, M.D., medical, institutional and community leadership 
  • 2018 – Basil A. Pruitt, Jr. M.D., one of the founding fathers of modern trauma and burn medicine 

Login

Welcome back! Login below