Each year, The University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center (HSC) makes new strides in health care, health research and workforce expansion. Highlighted below are some of the HSC’s crowning achievements in 2024, including starting construction on a new reproductive health center in Las Cruces and the new Children’s Psychiatric Center in Albuquerque and fronting more than $6 million to expedite a life-changing therapy for two young brothers.
From research to academics and clinical care, UNM HSC’s 2024 Year-in-Review showcases some of the most noteworthy student, faculty and staff accomplishments. Click on the headline to read the full story for each listing.
1. UNM Researchers Lead Global Microplastics Research
Three stories linked in paragraph below
UNM HSC researchers led the charge on microplastics studies in 2024. Three new articles published this year sparked global conversation about the tiny plastic particles and their potential impact on human health. The first study this identified microplastics in human placentas. Two months later, a second study charted the path of microplastic particles from the gut to other organs like the kidney, liver and brain. A third study identified them in canine and human testicular tissue, adding to concern surrounding their potential effect on reproductive health. Multiple UNM research teams remain hard at work on this topic and look forward to advancing our understanding of the health impacts of microplastics in the new year.
2. New Mexico Voters Approve General Obligation Bonds and Milly Levy
UNM Health is grateful to New Mexico’s voters who approved the continuance of a property tax that provides critical funding to patient care at UNM Hospital, and a General Obligation Bond that unlocks millions of dollars in funding for a renovation and expansion of the UNM College of Pharmacy building.
3. UNM Researchers Create New Way to Test Ski Boot Bindings in a Lab
Building a machine to recreate a very specific type of injury can take years, but a UNM research team has made a lot of promising progress on mimicking ACL tears with cadavers in a lab. The more they learn, the more injuries they hope to prevent down the slope.
4. UNM Hospital Children’s Psychiatric Center Groundbreaking
Construction has begun on a $36 million replacement and expansion of the UNM Hospital Children’s Psychiatric Center, which will increase the number of beds available for New Mexico’s most vulnerable children and adolescents and allow providers to practice modern psychiatric treatments.
5. New Mexico Poison & Drug Information Center Offering Substance Use Intervention
The poison hotline is a number you might not think to call for drug addiction, but it’s one that could make all the difference. Leaders at the New Mexico Poison & Drug Information Center at the UNM HSC want more families to know that that can call them the hotline when they are experiencing a crisis.
6. UNM Health System Expands Critical Services to Roswell
In an effort to provide services to an area of New Mexico in need of HIV and sexual health care, The UNM Health System has opened a clinic in Roswell, N.M., creating new access to critical services.
7. Reproductive Health Center Groundbreaking in Las Cruces
Expanding health care services in an area of New Mexico that needs it most, ensuring women have safe, high-quality options when they need reproductive care, is a key goal driving the groundbreaking of a new Reproductive Health Center in Las Cruces, N.M.
8. UNM Hospital Fronts $6 Million for Gene Therapy
When a devastating diagnosis turned a local family’s lives upside down, UNM Hospital pitched in several million dollars to secure a special gene therapy for not one, but two young brothers. In this article, the family shares their years-long battle with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and hospital leaders affirm their investment in patient well-being.
9. UNM Hospital Celebrates Opening of New Behavioral Health Crisis Triage Center
UNM Hospital already provides a full spectrum of behavioral health care to New Mexicans across the state. The new Behavioral Health Crisis Center now provides psychiatric emergency services, inpatient acute care, psychiatric urgent care and addiction treatment, as well as a broad range of outpatient mental health services.
10. New UNM College of Nursing & Public Health Excellence (CON-PHE) Building Opens
The primary goal of the new CON-PHE building is to increase the capacity to educate and graduate more students in nursing and public health. The new $43.2 million building includes $30 million funded by the general obligation bonds passed by New Mexico lawmakers and voters in 2020, along with additional allocations from recent legislative sessions, university funds and donors.