Rick Silva PhD

Executive Director, Clinical, Translation and Industry Collaborations Texas A&M Health Science Center

Dr. Silva joined the Texas A&M in 2019 to develop an external-facing collaborations program to augment the clinical and economic impact of the research enterprise at the Texas A&M Health Science Center. At Texas A&M he works directly with faculty and the biopharma, diagnostic, and medical informatics industries to develop research collaborations and translational roadmaps promising to validate biomedical research, patient engagement tools and technologies. He spent 5 years at University of Arizona’s academic medical center in a similar role spanning the implementation of Banner Health’s academic affiliation with University of Arizona and assuming operation of their hospitals and practice plan. He was key in leading the development of over $23 M in industry investment in precision medicine and cell therapy alliances in oncology, diabetes, and cardiovascular specialties. Previously, in 15 years at the University of Colorado, he had diverse experience in developing and leading a variety of collaborations including licensing transactions, technology development partnerships, public-private partnerships, multiparty collaborations, clinical trials, biomarker validation projects, supply and distribution agreements, strategic alliances, and particularly new ventures. He has successfully closed and managed partnerships across subsectors of the healthcare industry including provider networks, academic medical centers, pharma companies, health IT vendors, medical device companies, venture capital/private equity firms, including a key role in forming over 58 startup companies. He closed or supervised over 150 licensing and collaboration deals, $68 M in licensing revenue, collaboration and technology development research agreements totaling over $50 M in research funding, and involved in the creation of 58 biomedical startup companies. Under his leadership at the University of Colorado his office directed the deployment of over $15 M in research in support of new technology validation and venture development (gap funding). He holds an academic appointment in Texas A&M’s Institute for Biosciences and Technology at the Texas Medical Center, publishes and speaks on emergent collaboration models at the academic industry interface. He is an inventor on 2 pending patents on diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic strategies for diseases mediated by genome plasticity and co-leading an investigator-initiated clinical trial to validate these technologies for clinical use.

He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture from New Mexico State University, a Doctor of Philosophy in Physiology from Colorado State University, and a Master of Business Administration emphasizing Entrepreneurship and Finance from the University of Colorado-Boulder Leeds School of Business and is Certified Licensing Professional.