{"id":688349,"date":"2026-03-28T17:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T17:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/688349\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T17:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T17:20:18","slug":"san-antonio-leaders-push-city-of-science-vision-for-bioscience-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/688349\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio leaders push ‘City of Science’ vision for bioscience hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Antonio\u2019s bioscience sector has grown dramatically in recent decades. But it hasn\u2019t kept pace with the city\u2019s expansive health care industry, or with other major Texas metros like Dallas and Houston.<\/p>\n

Academic and business leaders gathered Wednesday to discuss the opportunities and challenges of turning San Antonio into a life science research and biotechnology hub able to compete on a larger stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get people to know what\u2019s here,\u201d said Heather Hanson, president of BioMedSA, a nonprofit that promotes the city\u2019s bioscience sector. \u201cOnce they know what\u2019s here, it\u2019s an obvious choice to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelists pointed to several barriers slowing the growth of San Antonio\u2019s bioscience sector, including a lack of capital, limited marketing and visibility outside the region, brain drain among recent graduates, and the absence of a large anchor biotechnology company.<\/p>\n

The discussion was organized by local economic development groups City Bloc and CNTR\/CTY as part of their \u201cEmerging Industries\u201d series, which highlights sectors expected to drive the city\u2019s future economy.<\/p>\n

Uneven growth<\/p>\n

Belto Altamirano, CEO of Tech Bloc<\/a> and a former San Antonio mayoral candidate, said bioscience is one of four industries that stand out as major growth opportunities for the city, alongside advanced manufacturing, aerospace and cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are four industries that are not just trending,\u201d Altamirano said. \u201cThey\u2019re going to shape the future of our economy, and we should double down in that space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bioscience includes life science research, drug development, biotechnology, medical manufacturing and related industries aimed at bringing discoveries from the lab into health care and pharmaceutical settings.<\/p>\n

San Antonio is already home to major players, including Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Southwest Research Institute and UT Health San Antonio, along with a large military medicine ecosystem anchored by Brooke Army Medical Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"A scientist puts on a level four containment suit that allows for full coverage from contaminates such as ebola is checked for potential air leaks and is assembled before entering any active research laboratory at Texas Biomedical Institute. Credit: Scott Stephen Ball for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

According to a 2022 San Antonio Chamber of Commerce report<\/a>, the area\u2019s combined health care and bioscience industries have grown into a $44 billion economic engine for Bexar County, up from just under $30 billion in 2011.<\/p>\n

But that growth has been uneven. Health care expanded by 63% over that period, while bioscience grew by 35%, from $12 billion in 2011 to $17 billion in 2021.<\/p>\n

Statewide, Texas\u2019 bioscience industry is \u201clarge and rapidly growing,\u201d with employment up 21% since 2019, according<\/a> to the Texas Healthcare & Bioscience Institute. The state also ranks ninth nationally in bioscience-related patents.<\/p>\n

Much of the national visibility, however, comes from Houston \u2014 long considered a major U.S. bioscience hub \u2014 as well as Dallas, which has quickly expanded its life science ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Science city<\/p>\n

San Antonio\u2019s biggest gap, Hanson said, is the lack of large private biotech companies and a deeper startup ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Antonio has more than 1,800 active clinical trials underway at any given time and a strong foundation of nonprofit research institutions and military medical infrastructure, but it still needs a major private sector anchor \u2014 the Toyota version of a biotech company, as one audience member put it \u2014 to build momentum, Hanson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very rich in the research side,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we don\u2019t have as much of the companies. Our biggest challenge right now is to get a big win of a large company.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Elena Volpi poses with a TRACE 1610, an isotop ratio mass mass spectrometer that measures oxidation, protein metabolism, and energies spent. Credit: Vincent Reyna for the San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

A major factor, she said, is the lack of marketing around San Antonio\u2019s health care and bioscience assets. San Antonio is often known for tourism and culture rather than as a center of research and biotech innovation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in San Antonio need to think of our city as a city of science,\u201d Hanson said.<\/p>\n

Capital, talent and brain drain<\/p>\n

Panelists also repeatedly pointed to capital as one of the biggest obstacles to building a larger bioscience economy. Life science companies often require specialized labs, equipment, manufacturing facilities and years of research before reaching the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a lot of time and a lot of money,\u201d said Paulomi Modi, a pediatric cancer researcher at UT Health San Antonio and regional director at Nucleate Texas, a nonprofit that supports bioscience leaders.<\/p>\n

Modi, who herself is moving to Houston soon, said startups in other Texas metros or larger hubs like in Boston or San Diego often have more access to lab space, grant-writing support and funding opportunities that help them survive the early years.<\/p>\n

San Antonio has the \u201cingredients,\u201d she said, but needs to better connect them into a coherent ecosystem.<\/p>\n

A major consequence of the capital gap is brain drain<\/a>, she said. Young scientists and entrepreneurs frequently leave for larger hubs where more jobs and funding exist.<\/p>\n

Jeremy Nelson, chief innovation officer at VelocityTX, said San Antonio has strengths that could be leveraged into a unique niche. Picking a lane and going all-in on it could help make up for the other areas where San Antonio\u2019s bioscience space falls short, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a lot going for us,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cAnd any time I see we\u2019re not as high on a [list], I think \u2018that\u2019s just an opportunity for us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Building the workforce<\/p>\n

Panelists also emphasized that bioscience is not limited to PhDs and lab researchers. Hanson said many jobs in the sector can be accessed directly out of high school, including in manufacturing and lab operations.<\/p>\n

Amanda Ramirez, director of student success at UT Health San Antonio\u2019s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, said the university and other organizations are working to strengthen training pipelines through partnerships with Alamo Colleges, school districts and universities.<\/p>\n

The goal, she said, is to introduce bioscience manufacturing education earlier to students, while improving social and economic mobility for residents.<\/p>\n

Still, San Antonio\u2019s biggest challenge may be convincing the rest of the country, and even its own residents, that it\u2019s already a bioscience city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot to be proud of here,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cWe should not just talk about the Spurs, as awesome as they are. We have a lot more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio\u2019s bioscience sector has grown dramatically in recent decades. But it hasn\u2019t kept pace with the city\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":688350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,288676,288677,115143,3653,210,288678,288679,7202,7203,358,7453,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,93916,7594],"class_list":["post-688349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-america","tag-biobridge-global","tag-biomedsa","tag-bioscience","tag-biotech","tag-health","tag-heather-hanson","tag-nucleate-texas","tag-san-antonio","tag-sanantonio","tag-texas","tag-top-story","tag-tx","tag-typedaily","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-velocitytx","tag-wc-1000-1500"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116307953608430594","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}