Researchers at The University of Texas Medical Branch have been awarded a total of nearly $5 million in grants from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to forward their work.

In all, CPRIT approved 61 grants totaling more than $93 million. The UTMB grantees are:

• Dr. Abbey Berenson, $2,499,990: Expanding Opportunities for HPV Vaccination in Medically Underserved Areas of East Texas
  
• Dr. William Russell, $1,999, 492: A Targeted Proteomics and Metabolomics Mass Spectrometry Core Facility at UTMB
  
• Dr. Jia Zhou, $250,000: Novel BTK Degraders for Refractory Lymphoma: Targeting Catalytic and Allosteric Sites
  
• Dr. Xun Sun, $2,000,000: Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Members
  

Berenson’s focus is reducing HPV-associated cancers in Southeast Texas by increasing prevention education, access to screenings, HPV vaccines and treatment among underserved populations, she said, adding that East Texas has one of the highest rates of vaccine hesitancy and cervical cancer in the state because many residents cannot afford the vaccine, cannot find providers who speak their language and/or are simply unaware of how this vaccine saves lives.

Berenson developed a combination of unique interventions to improve HPV vaccination rates in the area, dramatically increasing the number of East Texas residents who began and completed the HPV vaccine series.

“CPRIT funding has been instrumental in helping us reach a large number of patients in East Texas and provide them with education about the HPV vaccine,” Berenson said. “To date we have administered over 9,000 doses and we are thrilled to be able to continue this work. This will help us reduce the number of individuals who suffer from HPV-related cancers.”

The goal of Russell’s work is to bring the latest mass spectrometry tools and expertise to cancer researchers in Texas. Mass spectrometry helps scientists study tiny changes in proteins, fats and other molecules in the body to help find diseases early, predict how they will progress and discover new treatments.

“The proposed core will accelerate the molecular level understanding of diseases in order to discover new biomarkers and therapeutic targets using quantitative methods,” Russell said. “Ultimately, this core will impact research projects focused on cancers as driving new inter-institutional collaborations to diagnose and treat cancer.”

Zhou’s grant supports his work in developing a new way to treat certain lymphomas—like mantle cell lymphoma—that don’t respond well to current treatments. It focuses on blocking a specific protein, called BTK, that helps cancer cells survive. Some cancers mutate and become resistant to existing drugs, but these new treatments aim to shut down all BTK activity, including mutated forms. The goal is to prevent relapses and improve survival rates for patients with these hard-to-treat cancers.

“These research efforts in collaboration with Dr. Michael Wang’s team at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center may yield next-generation targeted therapies for improving patient outcomes by developing innovative strategies to prevent relapse and treat drug-resistant MCL and other refractory lymphomas,” Zhou said.

The final grant was used to recruit Dr. Xun Sun for the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at UTMB. Sun previously was with Scripps Research Institute.

CPRIT grants support cancer research and prevention projects across the entire spectrum of the organization’s mission, including CPRIT Scholar recruitment grants, a wide array of evidence-based prevention programs and funding for early-stage companies developing promising new treatments for cancer.

“Texas is a national leader in the fight against cancer,” CPRIT CEO Kristen Pauling Doyle said. “We can measure the return on investment from CPRIT grants like those approved today not only in the economic benefits flowing from increased financial activity and jobs in the state, but more importantly in the cancers avoided, detected early and treated successfully.”