Biochemistry: The Spliceosomal Peptidyl Prolyl Isomerase Like 1 Interacts with the Low-Complexity Domain of the RNA Binding Protein EWS Modulating Its Phase Separation Behavior (Libich Lab)

July 17, 2025

 Abstract RNA binding protein EWS, a member of the FET (FUS, EWS, TAF15) family, contributes to mRNA biogenesis through roles in transcription, splicing, and RNA transport. Despite evidence linking EWS to spliceosomal complexes, its interactions with spliceosome-associated cyclophilins remain unclear. Here, we describe the first structural and biochemical characterization of the EWS low-complexity domain (EWSLCD) [...]

Zhao Lai, PhD to Receive $365K NIH Grant to Expand Integrated High-Performance Imaging-Based in-situ Spatial Profiling

July 8, 2025

 The 10x Genomics Xenium Analyzer is a cutting-edge, fully integrated platform for high-performance, imaging-based in situ spatial transcriptomics. It enables researchers to perform highly sensitive, high-throughput targeted gene expression profiling at subcellular resolution, providing a powerful tool for uncovering the molecular and spatial complexity of tissue architecture. Xenium leverages targeted, high-plex in situ analysis to simultaneously detect and map hundreds [...]

Molecular Cancer Therapeutics: Targeting DDR2 for Treating Pancreatic Cancer (Rao Lab & Chen)

June 26, 2025

 Chris TP. Do  Prabhakar Pitta Venkata Jack Y. Prochnau Deepika Singh Santosh Timilsina Panneerdoss Subbarayalu Daisy Medina Shahad Abdulsahib Saif Nirzhor Sajid Khan Guiming Li Srikanth R. Polusani Daohong Zhou Pei Wang Yidong Chen Ratna K. Vadlamudi Matthew J. Hart Radhika Amaradhi Stanton F. McHardy Manjeet K. Rao Abstract Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a [...]

Daohong Zhou, MD, to Receive $2.4M CPRIT Award to Better Identify Therapeutic Targets and Develop Technologies to Target Hard-to-Treat Cancers.

June 23, 2025

 Develop transformative technologies that better target drug-resistant cancers Daohong Zhou, MD, tenured professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Structural Biology in the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, received CPRIT’s academic research award of over $2.4 million to expand UT Health San Antonio’s core facilities laboratories to increase researchers’ capabilities to better identify [...]

Luiz Penalva, PhD, to Receive “The Cure Starts Here” Grant.

January 7, 2025

 Lay Abstract Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most common malignant brain tumor in children. Treatment has improved survival in recent years, but patients are frequently left with devastating neurocognitive sequelae. Patients in molecular subgroups 3 and 4 still experience a high mortality rate. Our lab focuses on RNA-mediated processes to identify new pathways contributing to MB development. Our [...]

Scientific Reports: Whole genome and reverse protein phase array landscapes of patient derived osteosarcoma xenograft models (Kurmasheva)

September 12, 2024

 Chia-Chin Wu, Licai Huang, Zhongting Zhang, Zhenlin Ju, Xingzhi Song, E. Anders Kolb, Wendong Zhang, Jonathan Gill, Min Ha, Malcolm A. Smith, Peter Houghton, Christopher L. Morton, Raushan Kurmasheva, John Maris, Yael Mosse, Yiling Lu, Richard Gorlick, P. Andrew Futreal & Hannah C. Beird Abstract Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone malignancy in children and [...]

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

August 27, 2024

 Posted on August 23, 2024 at 8:33 am. Shared by Jane Alvarez-Hernandez 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 [...]

Yogesh Gupta, PhD, to Receive Grant from William and Ella Owens Medical Research Foundation to Study “Deciphering BAF Assembly for Pediatric Cancer Therapy”

June 17, 2024

 Deciphering BAF Assembly for Pediatric Cancer Therapy Synopsis: The adenosine triphosphate (ATP) dependent multi-subunit assemblies such as (BRG1/BRM-associated factors) complexes utilize ATP hydrolysis energy to reorganize chromatin architecture and facilitate genomic accessibility to transcription factors. However, in pediatric cancers, both assembly and recruitment of the BAF complexes are disrupted by mutations, deletions, and overexpression of [...]

Precision Oncology: Pharmacological inhibition of the LIF/LIFR autocrine loop reveals vulnerability of ovarian cancer cells to ferroptosis (Chen, Lai, Rao, et al)

June 17, 2024

       Behnam Ebrahimi, Suryavathi Viswanadhapalli, Uday P. Pratap, Gopalam Rahul, Xue Yang, Prabhakar Pitta Venkata, Viktor Drel, Bindu Santhamma, Swapna Konda, Xiaonan Li, Alondra Lee Rodriguez Sanchez, Hui Yan, Gangadhara R. Sareddy, Zhenming Xu, Brij B. Singh, Philip T. Valente, Yidong Chen, Zhao Lai, Manjeet Rao, Edward R. Kost, Tyler Curiel, Rajeshwar R. [...]