From cancer and heart failure to bacterial infections and birth defects, researchers at the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences & Technology in Houston work to improve the quality of health care through innovative research and education. The institute is organized into Centers of research excellence in cancer, genomics and disease, developmental biology and birth defects, and infectious disease. Established in 1986 in the Texas Medical Center – the world’s largest medical center – the institute was designed to foster creative research related to medicine, agriculture, animal sciences and engineering. With support from a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant and the generosity of philanthropists Albert and Margaret Alkek, IBT dedicated its home base in 1992 – the 11-story Albert B. Alkek Institute of Biosciences and Technology Building. Seven years later the institute became a founding component of the Texas A&M Health Science Center.
