UT Southwestern Medical Center recently landed more than $22 million in grants from the state of Texas to research leukemia, liver cancer, and immunotherapy.
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas announced the grants on Monday. The majority—$18 million—will go toward recruiting additional faculty. Researchers received $2 million to study a new antibody therapy for treating leukemia; $1.35 million to research liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma; and $1.1 million to study a receptor for anti-cancer immunotherapy.
“We are grateful to CPRIT and the people of Texas for their continued support of investigators at UT Southwestern, as reflected by these awards. These funds will enable our faculty and their teams to drive important advances that will lead to better care for cancer patients,” said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, the university’s president, in a prepared statement.
The eight grants bring UTSW’s CPRIT haul to 32 total worth $65 million. To date, CPRIT has given Texas agencies $1.14 billion to research cancer. Dr. ChengCheng Zhang, an associate professor of physiology and developmental biology, will head the leukemia study.
Dr. Hao Zhu, an associate professor with the Children’s Medical Research Institute at UTSW, will target live cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Lastly, Drs. Kiyoshi Ariizumi and Ponciano Cruz will look into the DC-HIL receptor for anti-cancer immunotherapy.
