Center for Health Sciences at the University of Texas in San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) received $ 3,395,970 in the new academic and prevention research prizes as part of the last $ 98 million financing round announced on May 21 by the Research Institute of Texas (CPrit) cancer. The state agency, which focuses on financing research and cancer prevention efforts based on evidence, has now granted $ 167 million to UT Health San Antonio since 2010.
Community intervention to increase VPH vaccination rates for adolescents in the county of Bexar
Erika L. Thompson, PHD, MPHassociate professor in the Department of Quantitative and Qualitative Health Sciences at The Public Health School of the University of Texas San Antonio At the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, in collaboration with the University of Texas in San Antonio (UTSA), received a CPIT prevention subsidy of $ 975,000 to finance a community intervention program to increase vaccination rates for the human papillomavirus (HPV) in the Comté de Bexar adolescents. HPV can lead to several different types of cancer in men and women. Consequently, improving vaccination rates is an effective way to reduce the risk of cancer and help prevent HNG -related cancers.
The project integrates and will adapt the Everything for them Vaccination program, a bilingual initiative based on evidence and culturally appropriate managed by Paula Cuccaro, PHD, at the Uthealth Houston School of Public Health for the delivery and coordination of the social marketing campaign. Ut Health San Antonio’s School of Nursing Will deliver HPV vaccines. The team will collaborate with community organizations and community health workers who work closely with poorly served communities to administer vaccination services on a community scale, including in programs after school.
“The emphasis on the project on the involvement of the poorly served populations guarantees that it will deal with the most urgent obstacles to vaccination,” said Thompson. “By increasing community demand for the HPV vaccine, improving access to vaccination services and strengthening confidence in the safety and efficiency of vaccines, this intervention aims to make significant progress towards reducing implications and mortality linked to CVC in Texas.”
“With the UT School of Public Health San Antonio being among the most recent Public Health Schools in Texas, we are proud of Dr. Thompson and the team that received these CPrit funds to support their current work,” said Tracey Barrnett, PHD, Associate Professor and President of the Department of Quantitative and Qualitative Sciences of Health. “This project represents public health in action, working with local community organizations to provide scientific solutions for cancer prevention for all Texans. “”
Develop transformative technologies that better target drug -resistant cancers
Daohong Zhou, MDfull professor of the department of biochemistry and structural biology in the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, Received the Academic Research Prize from CPRIT of more than $ 2.4 million to extend the basic laboratories of San Antonio installations to increase the capacities of researchers to better identify therapeutic objectives and develop technologies to target difficulties that are difficult to deal with.
Zhou, who is director of the Discovery Core target at Greehey children’s cancer research institute in Ut Health San Antonio, associate director for the development of drugs at Mays Cancer Center in Ut Health San Antonio and director of the institution Innovative drug discovery centerShared that although there has been significant progress in the treatment of cancers, we are always faced with major challenges, in particular with certain pediatric and adult cancers difficult to treat, such as brain tumors, the sarcomas of soft tissues and those who do not respond well to current therapies.
“However, the absence of basic installations for the identification and validation of targets (TIV) in Texas has limited the success of the discovery and development of new therapies against cancer because TIV is essential for the discovery and development of drugs,” said Zhou. “In addition, the CPRIT price will allow us to acquire and develop new TIV technologies, including the CRISPR discovery screening arranged by the cutting edge of technology for the TIV and revolutionary discovery platform of small molecules (SMD) for the screening of SMDs to target non-corrected proteins, which are not available in any other basic installation in Texas.”
Impact of research in Texas and beyond
“Our researchers who receive highly competitive prices, such as the CPRIT, to improve the life of the Texans, testifies to the excellence of the San Antonio research company and demonstrate the extraordinary science carried out here,” said Jennifer Sharpe Potter, PHD, MPH, UT Health San Antonio Vice-President. “CPrit is the largest investment in state cancer in the United States and the second largest research and cancer prevention program in the world. This recognition highlights the health capacity of San Antonio to attract high -level talents, which stimulates pioneering discoveries and advances health innovation internationally. “
The Center for Health Sciences at the University of Texas in San Antonio is a world class research university which recently received the prestigious research designation 1 (R1) by the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the progress of education in their carnegie classifications of 2025 Carnegie of higher education establishments. This designation firmly establishes the health of the UT San Antonio among the country’s elite research universities, classifying it in 5% of American establishments and underlines its leading role in revolutionary biomedical research and advances medical education.