SAN ANTONIO (Nov. 4, 2025) — Vaccine researchers from across San Antonio and Texas will gather to exchange their latest findings at the annual Vaccine Development Center of San Antonio (VDCoSA) Conference.
Since 2012, the center has been bringing scientists together to encourage collaboration in vaccine research and to host an annual symposium on immunology, infectious diseases and vaccines. VDCoSA is a collaboration between four of San Antonio’s leading research organizations: UT San Antonio, UT Health San Antonio, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed).
The 2025 conference, taking place Fri., Nov. 7 at the UT San Antonio downtown campus, features headline speakers from across industry, healthcare and academia:
Dr. Andrew Pekosz
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Professor and Vice Chair of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Dr. Ashraf Ibrahim
David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
Professor at David Geffen School of Medicine
Dr. Peter Dube
Boehringer-Ingelheim Vaccine Research Center
Head of Infectious Disease Immunology
The conference fosters synergy, exchange and innovation throughout San Antonio and beyond to accelerate the development of vaccines against a range of diseases, from influenza to tuberculosis to COVID. While originally focused on San Antonio, the conference has grown to include key collaborators from throughout Texas. This year some participating organizations include the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas Children’s Hospital, University of Texas at Austin, Rice University, Trinity University and more.
“After over a decade of this conference, you would think we wouldn’t need to point out the importance of vaccines or vaccine development. But we do – vaccine-preventable diseases have not gone away,” says Jean Patterson, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus at Texas Biomed and VDCoSA Scientific Advisory Member. “The recent unprecedented outbreak of measles that started in West Texas and resulted in two deaths in unvaccinated individuals is just one example.”
The conference provides opportunities for scientists at all levels, including students, early career researchers and faculty, to share their work in posters and talks with their peers. A key aim of VDCoSA is to support the next generation of scientists working on vaccines.
“We understand better than ever the importance of vaccines in preventing infectious diseases, including measles, polio, and more recently SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Luis Martinez-Sobrido, Ph.D., Professor at Texas Biomed and VDCoSA Scientific Advisory Member. “We are looking forward to this conference and how it can help spark new ideas and collaborations to develop vaccines that can protect all of us.”
Learn more about the event here.