CPRIT Awards $2 Million for Recruitment
Mays Cancer Center Annual Report
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) awarded UT Health San Antonio $2 million to recruit a second scientist studying nonalcoholic liver disease (NASH).
The funding, awarded Nov. 18, 2020, brings Xiaoli Sun, PhD, a young-career scientist studying liver cancer, to UT Health from the University of California San Diego.
Dr. Sun has developed unique mouse models to study NASH, the buildup of fat in the liver that can lead to liver cancer. She joined the Department of Pharmacology in the Long School of Medicine.
In August 2020, CPRIT funded a $2 million grant to recruit her husband, Peng Zhao, PhD, to UT Health’s Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology.
Dr. Zhao’s work is highly complementary to that of Dr. Sun, using different mouse models to help define the etiology of NASH and liver cancer. The couple joined the faculty in early 2021.
