$2 million CPRIT award brings top cancer researcher to UT Health San Antonio

As part of the $52 million Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) grant funding round announced in May, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) received a $2 million CPRIT recruitment (CPRIT Scholar) funding award to bring top cancer researcher, Maria Falzone, PhD, to the health science center beginning Sept. 4, 2024.

Falzone will join as an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology in the institution's Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine and cross-appointed as a full member of the Greehey Children's Cancer Research Institute and UT Health San Antonio's Mays Cancer Center, one of only four National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers in Texas and the only one in Central and South Texas.

She will devote her efforts to the study of the regulation of phospholipase enzymes, key signaling intermediates and their role in physiology and human diseases, particularly cancer. These enzymes are involved in important signaling pathways and play roles in the regulation of cellular growth and metabolism. "The Mays Cancer Center is eager to help translate Dr. Falzone's research into clinical medicine to benefit our cancer patients," says Lei Zheng, MD, newly appointed executive director of the Mays Cancer Center and vice president for oncology for the health science center beginning Sept. 1.

"One of my main research goals is to contribute to an increased understanding of cellular signaling and its dysregulation in cancer. It is my hope that our work can make a small contribution to something that eventually helps people, whether it's therapeutic development or an increased understanding of the underlying cellular processes," Falzone said. "Another goal is always to keep pushing the boundaries of what is experimentally possible. If we're going to understand new biological questions, we must keep developing and trying new and creative approaches."

"We are thrilled to have Dr. Falzone join our team at UT Health San Antonio for many reasons, including her cutting-edge expertise in structural biology and biophysics from her postdoctoral studies in the lab of Nobel laureate Roderick MacKinnon, MD, at The Rockefeller University in New York City," says Reuben Harris, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology at UT Health San Antonio and esteemed Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

A primary driver of San Antonio's leading $44.1 billion health care and biosciences sector, UT Health Science Center San Antonio is the largest academic research institution in South Texas with an annual research portfolio of $413 million.