UT Health San Antonio has been awarded nearly $3 million in new funding from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to support cancer prevention and research efforts in South Texas. The latest awards bring the total amount received by UT Health San Antonio from CPRIT since 2010 to almost $170 million.
The funding includes several academic research awards targeting ovarian, liver, and breast cancers. Kate Lawrenson, PhD, associate professor at the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, received an award of nearly $1.2 million to improve access to fallopian tube removal as a preventive measure against ovarian cancer. Lawrenson collaborated with Georgia McCann, MD, chief of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Mays Cancer Center.
Xiaoli Sun, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the Long School of Medicine and a member of several research centers at UT Health San Antonio, was awarded $900,000 for her work on liver cancer. Sun's research focuses on oxidized phospholipids (OxPLs), which accumulate in damaged liver tissue and tumors due to high rates of obesity and metabolic diseases prevalent in South Texas.
"Our research is focused on a type of harmful fat-like molecule called oxidized phospholipids (OxPLs)," Sun said. "These form when the liver is stressed by too much fat and inflammation. They build up in both damaged liver tissue and tumors. Our findings show that OxPLs can worsen liver disease. They increase inflammation, damage healthy cells, and disrupt the immune system's ability to fight cancer. This makes it easier for cancer to grow and spread.
"This project aims to uncover how these harmful fats contribute to metabolic stress-driven liver cancer and how blocking them, with an antibody called E06, a natural protein that blocks OxPLs, can restore the immune system's ability to fight cancer," Sun said. "We hope our research will lead to new ways to prevent and treat liver cancer caused by obesity and metabolic disease. This work is especially important in high-risk communities like those in South Texas, where new solutions are urgently needed."
Zhijie "Jason" Liu, PhD, tenured professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the Long School of Medicine, received an award just under $900,000 for his study on endocrine-resistant metastatic breast cancer.
"Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers," Liu said. "While treatments like hormone therapy help many women, some stop responding to these treatments, especially when the disease is more advanced. For this project, we are studying specific mutations in the estrogen receptor α (ERα) that help cancer cells keep growing even when hormone therapy is used, which makes the cancer harder to treat and more likely to spread.
"Our research examines how breast cancer cells with ERα mutations use small non-coding RNAs and protein clusters to form 'enhancer condensates' that turn on cancer-growth signals, even without estrogen or during endocrine therapy," he said. "By better understanding how breast cancer becomes resistant to treatment, we hope to open the door to better therapies that could benefit people from all backgrounds, especially those with fewer treatment options. Our goal is to develop better treatments that help patients with hard-to-treat breast cancer live longer and healthier lives."
Jennifer Sharpe Potter, PhD, MPH, senior executive vice president for research and innovation at UT San Antonio commented on CPRIT’s role: "CPRIT's unwavering commitment to funding groundbreaking cancer research and vital prevention initiatives across Texas is nothing short of transformative," she said. "It fuels the bold vision and relentless dedication of our world-class scientists and clinicians - leaders in their fields who have chosen UT Health San Antonio and the Mays Cancer Center as their home for discovery and impact.
"We are both proud and deeply humbled to serve this vibrant community," she said. "The spirit of collaboration and innovation here inspires us every day to push boundaries, accelerate breakthrough discoveries and deliver hope and healing to the people of South Texas and the world."
Since its creation by Texas voters in 2007 through a constitutional amendment authorizing $3 billion in bonds over ten years for statewide investment in innovative projects aimed at preventing or curing cancers (https://www.cprit.state.tx.us/about-us/history/), CPRIT has become a significant source for advancing scientific knowledge about cancers affecting Texans.
