Justin Leung, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology in the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (also called UT Health San Antonio), has received a Science and Technology Acquisition and Retention (STARs) $500,000 award from The University of Texas Board of Regents.
Leung, who is also cross-appointed with several programs in the university’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, plans on utilizing the funding to build and outfit his laboratory with the latest cutting-edge equipment to enhance the local research community and establish key collaborations.
“This award will allow us to purchase three pieces of state-of-the-art instrumentation, including a microscope that can capture high-resolution DNA repair events in real-time, a high-content screen instrument for cataloging protein localization dynamics and kinetics, and a self-calibrated X-ray irradiator for radiation studies,” Leung said. “Our research program will be able to develop a pipeline to study the DNA repair machinery regulations and identify new cancer therapeutic targets. This will also build a foundation for biochemical and structural studies in the future.”
The UT System Board of Regents established the STARs program in 2004. Multiple types of STARs awards support the enhancement of UT institutions across the state of Texas.