Page 22 - Layout 1

ALLERGIES

VITAL STATS
Allergies, Mountain Cedar and
the perfect petri dish
By David Schulz, CHP

If there’s a number vital to the average San Antonio household, Dr. Ratner began his studies in the treatment of allergies,
it’s the daily Mountain Cedar Pollen count, provided by Dr. Paul asthma and immunology in children and adults in 1984, creating
Ratner and Sylvana Research to nearly every local weather fore- Sylvana Research concurrent with the start of his practice. This
caster each morning. And for good reason. When San Antonio research facility studies new investigational medications about to
developed, so did the perfect laboratory petri dish for studying be introduced via Phase 1 through Phase 4 clinical drug trials;
allergens. Not just cedar, Dr. Ratner points out, but a broad range and trials are not limited to allergy medications.
of allergen studies are conducted here, taking advantage of absence
of any competing pollens during the height of winter season. A graduate of The State University of New York at Stony Brook
with a bachelor of science degree in biology in 1971, Dr. Ratner
“We made Mountain Cedar known to pharmaceutical com- received his medical degree from the Albany Medical College of
panies,” he says about himself and his colleagues. “They knew Union University and completed his residency in pediatrics at
nothing about it, but it was a pure season and a perfect labora- Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio in 1978. He com-
tory for study.” pleted a two-year fellowship in clinical allergy and immunology

22 San Antonio Medicine • March 2017