CPRIT awards approximately $16.4 million to advance children’s cancer research and attract top researchers to South Texas
Mays Cancer Center Annual Report
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) has awarded The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio roughly $16.4 million in funding to help advance research into cancers that affect children and teens, as well as bring three noted cancer researchers on board.
Advancing Ewing’s sarcoma research
Katsumi Kitagawa, PharmD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and investigator in the health science center’s Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute, received $1.4 million to advance research into Ewing’s Sarcoma.
“CPRIT’s support will enable Dr. Kitagawa to develop novel therapeutic strategies for treating Ewing’s sarcoma, a common pediatric bone cancer,” said Patrick Sung, director of UT Health San Antonio’s Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute.
Renowned cancer researcher joins UT Health San Antonio
Simon Gayther, PhD, a cancer researcher from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, joined Mays Cancer Center at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the Department of Medicine through CPRIT funding. His breakthrough studies have focused on understanding the underlying causes of ovarian cancer initiation and development.
Gayther joined as professor of medicine, Mays Family Endowed Chair in heritable oncogenesis and inaugural director of the school’s Center for Heritable Oncogenesis (the formation of tumors). He will be part of the Mays Cancer Center’s Population Science and Prevention Program. Gayther will focus mainly on his internationally acclaimed research program in genetic epidemiology and functional biology of risk variants associated with ovarian, breast and prostate cancers.
New chair in DNA repair genetics
A $6 million CPRIT recruitment (CPRIT Scholar) funding brought Anna Malkova, PhD, to UT Health San Antonio. Formerly at the University of Iowa, she joins UT Health San Antonio as a full professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology.
She will be a member of Mays Cancer Center’s Cancer Development and Progression Program and the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute. Malkova will also serve as the Mays Family Endowed Chair in DNA Repair Genetics and a mentor in the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program.
Blood cancer research at Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute
A $2 million CPRIT recruitment grant also brought Yu Luan, PhD, to UT Health San Antonio from Northwestern University. Luan is an assistant professor in the Department of Cell Systems and Anatomy and an investigator with UT Health San Antonio’s Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute.
Luan’s laboratory is dedicated to detecting and characterizing epigenetic and chromatin topology alterations during tumorigenesis (the formation or production of tumors). It is focused on developing algorithms and computational tools to elucidate the impact of genetic variants and transposable elements on human diseases and establishing role models to kindle new generations of high achievers in medicine and medical science.
