Renowned cancer researcher brings $500,000 UT System Faculty STARs award to UT Health San Antonio

Simon Gayther, PhD, professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology in the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine and founding director in the school's Center for Inherited Oncogenesis at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), received a $500,000 UT System Faculty Science and Technology Acquisition and Retention (STARs) award to build the research infrastructure to carry out the basic and clinically translatable research program, including the necessary refurbishment of laboratories and the purchase of both general and specialized equipment.

Gayther, who serves as a co-director of the Population Sciences and Prevention Program at the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio, joined the health science center earlier this year as part of the $16.4 million funding round from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

"San Antonio is an urban hub in South Texas and serves the health needs of a large, 38-county catchment area, with the majority of the population who are of Mexican American ancestry. This population represents a major health care issue found across the U.S.: They are underserved from a health care perspective and may have risk factors, both genetic and environmental/lifestyle, which are more common within this population than found in other parts of the country. Variation in these risk factors probably affects the incidence of numerous cancer types," Gayther said.

"We have established the Center for Inherited Oncogenesis with the goal to use leading-edge technologies to better understand the functional role of genetic risk variation in causing cancers that are common in South Texas and to develop clinical biomarkers that improve screening, diagnosis, prevention and treatment strategies for these cancers," said Gayther. "The ability to serve the health needs of such an underserved population was a major draw to bringing my research to UT Health San Antonio."

In 1994, The University of Texas System Board of Regents approved the allocation of funds for multiple types of STARs awards to help attract and retain the best-qualified faculty to perform their research at one of the 14 UT System academic and health institutions across the state of Texas.