SAN ANTONIO (March 9, 2011) — Six investigators from The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio will receive awards from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) at its annual meeting April 2-6 in Orlando, Fla.
One of every seven faculty awards nationwide is going to the Health Science Center, including its Cancer Therapy and Research Center (CTRC), School of Medicine and basic science departments.
The five faculty honorees from the Health Science Center are studying the initiation and progression of prostate, breast and pancreatic cancers. These scientists will receive AACR Minority-Serving Institution Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research Awards:
- Ibtissam Echchgadda, Ph.D., instructor of molecular medicine
- Addanki Pratap Kumar, Ph.D., associate professor of urology
- Pothana Saikumar, Ph.D., associate professor of pathology
- Chung-Seog Song, Ph.D., assistant professor/research of molecular medicine
- Ratna Vadlamudi, Ph.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology
Valerie Cortez, B.S., a Ph.D. student in cellular and structural biology at the Health Science Center, is one of 50 students nationwide to be selected for the AACR Minority Scholar in Cancer Research Award. Her faculty mentor is Dr. Vadlamudi.
The AACR awards are sponsored by a grant from the National Cancer Institute’s Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities.
The AACR is a partner with the CTRC and Baylor College of Medicine in the annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, an international scientific symposium for interaction and exchange among basic scientists and clinicians in breast cancer.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving U.S. federal funding. Research and other sponsored program activity totaled $228 million in fiscal year 2010. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced approximately 26,000 graduates. The $744 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.eduwww.uthscsa.edu.