The fight against cancer in San Antonio got a multi-million dollar boost Thursday.
The Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas – called CPRIT – awarded three UT Health San Antonio projects $3.5 million dollars.
Part of the money will fund a bilingual smoking cessation texting program. Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H.,professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and director of the Institute of Health Promotion Research got $1.3 million to expand Quitxt. Listen to a Texas Public Radio story about that project by clicking here.
Another project receiving the grant is a novel chemical strategy to treat lung cancer. Hai Rao, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine, is the leader of that project.
Another $2 million will help bring a new cancer genome specialist to UT Health's Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute. Siyuan Zheng, Ph.D., is coming from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics.
