School of Medicine Cancer Center

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

The TTUHSC SOM Cancer Center enjoys many collaborations with academic investigators and pharmaceutical companies for development of novel models for studying cancers in the laboratory and using those models to carry out laboratory studies that lead to new therapeutic clinical trials for patients with cancer. One example of these collaborations is our work with the Children's Oncology Group to establish, bank, and distribute patient-derived cell lines and xenografts from children with cancer. The Childhood Cancer Repository (www.CCcells.org) located at the TTUHSC Cancer Center provides these models to hundreds of laboratories across 30 countries. The repository is supported by Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.

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NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

• November 2023.  Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) awarded a renewal grant to continue to support the ALSF/Children’s Oncology Group Childhood Cancer Repository directed by C Patrick Reynolds MD PhD. read more
• August 2023. In its latest funding cycle, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) awarded grants to four researchers from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC). Combined, the grants will provide nearly $2.3 million that TTUHSC will use to conduct a pair of two-year pilot studies, acquire a state-of-the-art piece of laboratory equipment known as a cell sorter, and administer a colorectal cancer screening and prevention program. read more
• August 2023.  The Cancer Center is pleased that Balakrishna Koneru, PhD has joined the Cancer Center and the TTUHSC SOM faculty as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics.  Dr. Koneru completed his postdoctoral training at TTUHSC. He works on studying molecular mechanisms and potential novel therapies for cancers with the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) phenotype. Dr. Koneru will focus his research efforts on studying ALT in osteogenic sarcoma. read more
• May 2023.  Investigators from the Cancer Center presented research papers at the Advances in Neuroblastoma Research meeting in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  This meeting gathers reserachers working on the childhood cancer neuroblastoma every 2 years (www.ANRmeeting.org).  Dr. Kang presented her work on defining gene expression signatures associated with chemotherapy resistance in neuroblastoma.  Dr. Reynolds presented the study of telomere maintenance mechanisms in patients enrolled on the most recently completed Children’s Oncology Group phase III clinical trial for high-risk neuroblastoma.  Dr. Keyel presented her work on the association of loss of GD2 antigen expression with resistance to dinutuximab, and antibody used to treat neuroblastoma.  Dr. Keyel was awarded one of the three prizes given for best presentation at the meeting, the only such award received by any investigator from the USA. read more
• May 2023.  Dr. Yangzom Bhutia, a Cancer Center member in the Cell Biology and Biochemistry Department received a 5 year National Cancer Institute RO1 grant. Dr Bhutia’s research and the recently awarded grant focuses on targeting amino acid transporters as potential therapies for pancreatic cancer. Dr. Bhutia is one of the initial junior faculty supported by the Texas Regional Excellence in Cancer (TREC) grant from CPRIT and the first “graduate” of the TREC to secure NCI RO1 funding. read more
• February 2023.   The Cancer Center is pleased that Nighat Noureen, PhD has joined the Cancer Center and joined the TTUHSC SOM faculty as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics. Dr. Noureen completed her postdoctoral fellowship training at UTHSC San Antonio. Dr. Noureen is an expert in bioinformatics and will direct the Cancer Center Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core. read more
• August 2022. Cancer Center investigators published an exciting new paper describing a novel approach to treating cancers that use the alternative lengthening of telomeres (ALT) mechanism to grow. Data in the paper show strong activity of the p53 reactivating drug APR-246 against human ALT neuroblastomas, sarcomas, and breast cancers grown in special mice. The publication is: Cancer Research 82:3345-3358, 2022. PMID: 35947641. read more

• September 2022 Dr. Min Kang received a 5 year, $3.3 million grant from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to support the West Texas Pharmacology Core. This is a pharmacology core laboratory located at TTUHSC that supports preclinical and clinical research for multiple academic institutions and small biotech companies in Texas. read more
• January 2022 The TTUHSC Cancer Center received a 5 year, $1.9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute entitled “Targeting Shared Vulnerabilities in Alternate Telomere Lengthening (ALT) Cancers”. RO1 CA264949, PI: C Patrick Reynolds, MD PhD. read more
• September 2021 The TTUHSC Cancer Center received a 5 year, $1.9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute entitled “Robust assays to define telomere maintenance mechanisms as cancer biomarkers ”. UO1 CA263988, PI: C Patrick Reynolds, MD PhD. read more
• August 2021   The TTUHSC Cancer Center received a 5 year, $6 million grant from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas entitled “Texas Regional Excellence in Cancer Developmental Therapeutics Center at TTUHSC”.  CPRIT RP20042, PI:  C Patrick Reynolds, MD PhD. This grant involves multiple investigators in the TTUHSC School of Medicine and TTUHSC School of Pharmacy, including Min Kang, PharmD, Barry Maurer, MD PhD, Scot Trasti, DVM, Yangzom Bhutia, DVM, V. Ganapathy, PhD, Nadezhda German, PhD, Thomas Abbruscato PhD, Chinnadurai Mani, PhD, Komaraiah Palle, PhD, Devin Lowe, PhD, and Sanjay Srivastava, PhD. This grant will support recruiting new investigators in cancer drug development to TTUHSC. read more 
• August 2021  TTUHSC Cancer Center investigators published a paper in Science Translational Medicine demonstrating that ATM kinase is activated in neuroblastomas with the alternate lengthening of telomere (ALT) phenotype and that an ATM kinase inhibitor can reverse drug resistance in ALT neuroblastoma cell lines and xenografts. read more

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