Rene Dominguez, President, VelocityTX
Rene Dominguez, president of VelocityTX, spoke with Invest: about the company’s growth and positioning within the booming biosciences industry in San Antonio. “The programming and technical assistance we provide involves leveraging military medical research and developing dual-use technologies that can be used by the military and civilian markets,” he stated.
Over the past year, what significant milestones has VelocityTX achieved in advancing San Antonio’s bioscience sector?
Last year, we redeveloped an entire city block into a bioscience innovation hub comprised of seven buildings with over 140,000 square feet of leasable office, wet lab, and BSL-2 lab space. The campus is now fully occupied and houses bioscience companies, the Department of Defense, and medical research organizations. BBG Advanced Therapies and Scorpius Biomanufacturing anchor the campus and represent some of the most sophisticated manufacturing organizations anywhere in the city.
What makes San Antonio an ideal location for VelocityTX, and how does the region’s bioscience ecosystem differentiate itself from other markets?
Bioscience is the largest industry in San Antonio, and continues to grow. The city is home to several well-known and world-renowned research assets, and is well-positioned to be a nationwide leader in bioscience education with the recent merger announcement between UTSA and UT Health San Antonio. We’re excited about this development and its implications for healthcare and bioscience innovation and research. San Antonio also has an established ecosystem of private research partners like Southwest Research Institute and Texas Biomed. Perhaps most important, however, is military medical research. All three branches of the military have major medical research assets in San Antonio, and within those assets, they do everything from determining different research needs, testing and evaluation, and partnerships with trauma care centers. Military medical research is a big differentiator for San Antonio, and our business strategy includes leveraging the potential of that research to drive jobs and investment to San Antonio. In fact, much of the programming and technical assistance we provide centers around this research and the development of dual-use technologies that can be deployed in military and civilian markets.
How does the establishment of the U.S. Air Force’s 59th Medical Wing research office at VelocityTX reflect the organization’s commitment to military medical research?
It’s a validation that the military can advance technologies quicker by partnering with the private sector, which is the value proposition VelocityTX presents. Essentially, we work to bring the private sector and the military together. In terms of the big picture, we are committed to developing a military medical research hub on the six acres we own just south of our Merchants Ice campus. As the military presence grows here, we plan to grow with them by establishing a dedicated facility for them.
How is the organization partnering with businesses, healthcare providers, and local governments to expand the bioscience industry in the region?
Two years ago, we established a partnership with UT Health San Antonio to develop an accelerator program that helps school-affiliated researchers navigate the path to commercialization. Last year, we kicked off a first-of-its-kind partnership with Methodist Healthcare Ministries for an eight-week accelerator program that advances companies seeking to address the social determinants of health. The winner of the accelerator then goes on to pilot their technologies through the Methodist Healthcare Ministries network of partners in the Rio Grande Valley.
What strategies are in place to attract and support early-stage bioscience companies aiming to commercialize life-enhancing innovations?
One way we support early-stage companies is through programming and technical assistance that helps private sector companies partner with the military. Most of our programming is specific to that, and we have dedicated staff who serve as an intermediary between the military and the private sector. We source companies nationally to locate on our campus and then help them navigate the military ecosystem. When you zoom out, in addition to sourcing companies, we also host a major military medical conference called the AIM Health R&D Summit. The name is an acronym for Academia, Industry, and Military, and the sole purpose of the conference is to encourage and promote cross-sector collaboration between the military and private industry. Last year, we hosted the event in partnership with UT Health and UTSA. Prior to that, the event was a standalone industry day. By bringing academia into the picture, we were able to triple attendance year over year.
What role does technology play in R&D and production capabilities? Are there any new innovations you’re particularly excited about?
We develop technical assistance based on industry needs. Like everyone around the globe, AI is a topic that rises to the top. Embedding AI into medical technologies such as therapeutics, medical devices, and therapies is at the forefront. We’re trying to embed different types of technical assistance and training with AI.
What are your top priorities for the next two to three years?
We celebrated our 40th anniversary last year, and we also completed our redevelopment of the five-acre Merchants Ice campus. This year, our focus is on the six acres just south of that campus. It’s currently a green field, but we have a vision to redevelop those six acres to include another 700,000-square-foot medical innovation center for the private, academic, and military sectors. Specifically, we are focused on establishing a military medical innovation hub and facility on our campus.
