Audrey Gray

UT San Antonio Today • 10th September 2026

Natural defense: Unlocking the brain’s hidden ability to suppress addiction - UT San Antonio Today

Substance use disorders create persistent changes in the brain that often make long-term recovery challenging. While neuroscientists have historically focused on neurons — the primary nerve cells responsible for transmitting electrical signals — to understand and treat addiction, a new research project at The University of Texas at San Antonio is turning its attention to an often-overlooked “support cell” in the brain: astrocytes.Supported by a new two-year, $368,392 grant from the National Inst...

UT San Antonio Today • 8th September 2026

UT San Antonio researcher builds self-powered, smart warning system to catch local floods - UT San Antonio Today

When sudden rainstorms roll across Texas, flooding can erupt in a matter of minutes. From coastal bends facing storm surges to low-water crossings in San Antonio, flood risks often spike block by block long before regional alerts sound. That means some people could have ankle-deep water in their yard by the time a flash flood warning notification sounds on their phone.But a better monitoring system could get the word out more swiftly — and also more accurately. Researchers at The University of T...

UT San Antonio Today • 31st August 2026

How one UT San Antonio researcher is working to make fuel out of thin air - UT San Antonio Today

Editor’s Note: This project is sponsored by the Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research under ONR Award Number N000142512239.What if the exhaust from a jet plane was not just pollution, but rather a source of its next tank of fuel?  While it may sound like science fiction, converting carbon dioxide (CO₂) into fuel is already possible, and a team of UT San Antonio researchers is working to fine-tune the process.The researchers are developing catalysts that transform CO₂, ultimately produ...

UT San Antonio Today • 4th August 2026

Freezing fire: UT San Antonio scientists discover breakthrough for green energy - UT San Antonio Today

As the global push for cleaner energy intensifies, solid oxide fuel cells have emerged as a promising option. They turn hydrogen or other renewable fuels directly into electricity and heat without combustion, eliminating virtually all pollution and boosting efficiency to over 60%. But a major downside has kept them out of everyday commercial use: they require extremely high temperatures to operate.A team of researchers at UT San Antonio and partnering institutions have found a way around that ba...

3rd August 2026

How Texas is Becoming America’s Cybersecurity Command Center

As the eighth-largest economy in the world, Texas is a cornerstone of the nation's economic, civic, and defense infrastructure. That means cybersecurity is no longer just about protecting data. It is about keeping water systems running, hospitals connected, ports moving, manufacturers producing, and military missions secure.That scale creates opportunity. It also demands responsibility.Cyber threats can impact the systems that communities rely on every day. To address those threats, organization...

UT San Antonio Today • 30th July 2026

Mapping safety: How UT San Antonio criminologists are helping to reduce violent crime - UT San Antonio Today

Walking the streets of San Antonio is statistically safer than it used to be. The city saw a 21.1% drop in violent street crime incidents in 2025 compared to 2024. Average monthly counts for specific violent offenses also dropped: murders by 18.5%, robberies by 17%, aggravated assaults by 19.8% and deadly conduct by 32%.Data-driven policing strategies developed by criminologists at UT San Antonio likely drive this shift. Now in its fourth year, the San Antonio Violent Crime Reduction Plan brings...

UT San Antonio Today • 9th July 2026

Study finds word choice is linked to depression and anxiety symptoms in 911 dispatchers - UT San Antonio Today

Emergency call takers and dispatchers serve as the invisible frontline of public safety, navigating life-or-death crises over phone lines and radios without ever seeing the outcomes of their efforts. Now, a new study from UT San Antonio reveals that the specific words these workers use to describe their most stressful calls can provide early, hidden warning signs of depression and anxiety.Published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One, the study demonstrates how natural language processing — a...

UT San Antonio Today • 29th June 2026

Can robots “fail forward”? Teaching AI to learn from its mistakes - UT San Antonio Today

Editor’s Note: This work relates to Department of Navy award N000142212474 issued by the Office of Naval Research.For years, the gold standard for training artificial intelligence has been to show it how to succeed. Whether it was Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo learning from millions of human professional moves or a robot being trained on motion-tracking data from humans in a maze, the assumption was that AI needs an expert model to mimic.However, Yongcan Cao, a researcher at The University of Texas...

UT San Antonio Today • 24th June 2026

Innovative $2.9 million NIH-funded project to transform harmful fat into healthy tissue following rotator cuff injuries - UT San Antonio Today

An innovative project is looking to tackle a major hurdle in orthopedic medicine: the irreversible muscle degeneration that occurs after a tendon rips.The study will pioneer a new nanotherapeutic solution that could turn harmful fat into healthy tissue after a rotator cuff tear.“When patients undergo surgical intervention, often the muscle doesn’t regenerate. It stays atrophied and with irreversible fatty infiltration,” Hugo Giambini, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engi...

UT San Antonio Today • 9th June 2026

Unlocking the circular economy: research maps the hidden economics of resale, rebates and ‘green’ shopping - UT San Antonio Today

Every time someone trades in a phone, picks a refurbished laptop over a new one or buys thrifted clothes online, they are supporting a growing circular economy — a system where used items are given a second life instead of going into a landfill. This growing trend is good for the environment, but it also creates a new kind of tension between big-name brands that sell new products and the e‑retailers that profit from used ones.UT San Antonio researcher Minghe Sun, operations and analytics profess...

UT San Antonio Today • 26th May 2026

UT San Antonio researchers find ‘perfect recipe’ to regrow bone and blood vessels - UT San Antonio Today

For patients suffering from traumatic injuries that leave behind “volumetric” gaps — where significant bone and blood vessels are lost — the clock is always ticking. Without a nearby blood supply, cells in the center of a large injury cannot survive, often leading to permanent tissue loss or failed grafts.A team of eight scientists at The University of Texas at San Antonio has discovered a potential “perfect recipe” to address this challenge. By blending two natural proteins found in the human b...

UT San Antonio Today • 21st May 2026

UT San Antonio leads national effort to arm law enforcement with ‘smart’ forensic skills - UT San Antonio Today

The modern crime scene is no longer confined to obvious, physical evidence like broken glass or shell casings. In the age of the “smart home,” seemingly innocuous devices that are networked, mounted on a wall or strapped on a wrist can play a key role in solving — and committing — crimes.As the number of connected devices worldwide is projected to exceed 40 billion by 2034, The University of Texas at San Antonio is leading a national initiative to ensure law enforcement can keep pace. Through th...

UT San Antonio Today • 18th May 2026

Stress and hormones interact in surprising ways, affecting learning in the female brain - UT San Antonio Today

Studies suggest that a single stressful event can sharpen how the male brain learns to associate environmental cues with rewards, creating the essential motivational building blocks to master new skills. On the other hand, more prolonged stress can be a deterrent to learning.After testing this pattern, a research team at The University of Texas at San Antonio decided to investigate a new question: Does the female brain respond the same way to stress, and do fluctuations in hormones affect these...

UT San Antonio Today • 6th May 2026

Cultivating the future: Joint UT San Antonio, SwRI program to train next generation of smart agriculture experts - UT San Antonio Today

As global food demands intensify, the agricultural sector is turning to high-tech solutions like AI, drones and robotics to transition from conventional farming practices to high-efficiency “smart agriculture.” In response to these evolving demands, The University of Texas at San Antonio is stepping up to ensure the Texas workforce is ready.
A new five-year program, supported by a $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), will train dozens of undergraduate students in cuttin...

UT San Antonio Today • 5th May 2026

A non-toxic guard against Lyme disease could soon be an everyday purchase - UT San Antonio Today

A breakthrough in the fight against Lyme disease is moving from the laboratory to the hardware store. Researchers at The University of Texas at San Antonio are developing a non-toxic biologic that could soon be available in big-box and home improvement stores.
This will offer a new line of defense against the most common tick-borne illness in the United States.
The project, led by Janakiram Seshu, a professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology in the College of Sciences,...

UT San Antonio Today • 28th April 2026

Three UT San Antonio researchers honored with inaugural Texas Innovation Awards - UT San Antonio Today

Three faculty researchers from The University of Texas at San Antonio were celebrated with the inaugural Texas Innovation Award, a new statewide award recognizing leadership in translating academic research into real-world impact.
The awards were presented during the Texas Innovation Conference & Awards on April 22–23 at the Texas Christian University campus in Fort Worth.
The Texas Innovation Conference & Awards aims to strengthen the state’s innovation network by highlighting researchers whose...

UT San Antonio Today • 27th April 2026

Simple training can save lives by keeping medical supplies on the shelves, UT San Antonio researcher finds - UT San Antonio Today

A recent study from The University of Texas at San Antonio reveals that low-cost training for frontline health workers can significantly reduce medical supply shortages, potentially saving thousands of lives in developing nations.
Amir Karimi, an assistant professor of operations and analytics in the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, evaluated a large-scale initiative in Indonesia designed to keep contraceptives on pharmacy shelves. The study recently accepted by Management Science, found that...

UT San Antonio Today • 6th April 2026

Health Research Challenge provides funding to integrated teams to address critical health challenges - UT San Antonio Today

The University of Texas at San Antonio Office for Research and Innovation announced 14 interdisciplinary teams will receive a total of $543,274 through the university’s Health Research Challenge. Launched in November 2025, the new internal funding program aims to foster interdisciplinary health research collaboration by requiring that winning teams include researchers from both the academic and health campuses of the newly integrated university.
“The UT San Antonio Health Research Challenge team...

UT San Antonio Today • 16th March 2026

UT System ranks No. 4 worldwide for U.S. utility patents - UT San Antonio Today

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UT San Antonio) has again affirmed its standing as a global leader in innovation. The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) announced that The University of Texas System ranked No. 4 in its prestigious list of the Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted U.S. Utility Patents in 2025.
The annual ranking highlights the vital role that university-led research plays in driving the global economy and translating laboratory discoveries into real-world applications,...

UT San Antonio Today • 2nd March 2026

From ‘them’ to ‘nosotros’: How dual language academies unite San Antonio students - UT San Antonio Today

Twelve years ago, conditions and morale at Irving Academy in the San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) were abysmal, according to teachers and district leaders.
“You could smell the mold that was in the carpets. There were no windows in the classrooms,” said Jackie Calderón Hernandez, a teacher in the middle school English Language Arts class.
Since then, the district has cleaned up the buildings and made significant strides in improving the school, and, through a program called the Du...

UT San Antonio Today • 27th February 2026

UT San Antonio recognized for exceptional research in cybersecurity - UT San Antonio Today

The National Security Agency (NSA) designated UT San Antonio as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Research (CAE-R) for its doctoral programs.
The NSA awards the designation to universities with exceptional doctoral-level cybersecurity education and research. The program also aims to recognize universities that advance the priorities set forth in the 2018 National Cyber Strategy by addressing “the critical shortage of professionals with cybersecurity skills” and producing “the qua...

UT San Antonio Today • 18th February 2026

Researcher navigates remote peat swamps to protect the endangered Sunda gharial - UT San Antonio Today

In the dense, blackwater peat swamps of Southeast Asia, a rare predatory reptile conceals itself below the water’s surface, largely unknown to the world.
The Sunda gharial (Tomistoma schlegelii) is a crocodile that is dwindling in numbers, but Kyle Shaney, an assistant professor of vertebrate zoology at UT San Antonio, is leading an important mission to uncover its mysteries.
Listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, the Sunda gharial is one of the wo...

UT San Antonio Today • 16th February 2026

UT San Antonio to launch nation’s first open-access neuromorphic computing hub - UT San Antonio Today

Artificial intelligence (AI) is getting smarter, but with its increasing capacity comes a growing energy footprint.
As modern AI models expand, massive data centers are needed — technology that consumes levels of energy and finite natural resources that some experts warn is unsustainable.
To tackle this challenge, the MATRIX AI Consortium for Human Well-Being at UT San Antonio plans to launch a new initiative that establishes a national hub for “neuromorphic” computing available for public use....

UT San Antonio Today • 29th January 2026

Zero preventable deaths: How one research team is redefining trauma care in Texas - UT San Antonio Today

Every year, as many as 30,000 people in the United States die of what is considered preventable trauma, according to a 2016 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).
The solution cited in the study is treating civilian trauma care more like military trauma care — standardized, streamlined and immediate, with greater intensive care applied at the site of injuries.
A decade later, a team of San Antonio researchers is putting that solution to the test with h...