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Will SansomPhone: (210) 567-2579
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sansom@uthscsa.edu The University of Texas System Board of Regents, investing in the top tenth of 1 percent of researchers who will propel Texas to new heights in diverse fields, has awarded $1.25 million in Board of Regents STARS funding to The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. The funding will enhance the laboratories of Tyler J. Curiel, M.D., M.P.H., a brilliant physician-scientist whose innovative studies of ovarian cancer and the immune system are testing conventional thinking in oncology and suggesting potential new avenues to treating tumors of all types, Health Science Center President Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., announced Dec. 15.
Dr. Curiel has published a high-impact series of papers on cancer cells’ ability to convert immune and other cells into “bad actors” that can fuel tumor growth within the cancer microenvironment. He also has identified a very specific immune cell that cancer can use to turn off the immune system.
Dr. Curiel joined the Health Science Center and the Cancer Therapy & Research Center this summer. These institutions are partners in the San Antonio Cancer Institute (SACI), one of only two National Cancer Institute Cancer Centers in Texas. Dr. Curiel is the SACI director and is leading the charge to enhance its U.S. and global stature.
“The Board of Regents STARS funding is offered only to those researchers who are doing transformative work and who have obvious potential to be elected to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies or to win the Nobel Prize,” said Dr. Cigarroa, who was elected to the prestigious IOM earlier this fall. “We are extremely proud of Dr. Curiel and his program.”
The STARS funding is administered by Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., executive vice chancellor for health affairs with the U.T. System. Dr. Shine, a longtime IOM member, has a very rigorous process to evaluate STARS funding candidates.
“This award speaks to Dr. Curiel’s impressive qualifications, merits of our cancer center and the U.T. System’s support,” said William L. Henrich, M.D., M.A.C.P., dean of the Health Science Center School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs.
Dr. Curiel, considered one of today’s leading talents in his field, brought 11 talented members of his laboratory at Tulane Medical Center to the Health Science Center. The Board of Regents STARS funding will support acquisition of specialized imaging equipment necessary to continue the group’s work. Dr. Curiel came to San Antonio with nearly $4 million in highly competitive, annual National Institutes of Health grant funding.
His work has challenged what he calls the “not enough of a good thing” paradigm in cancer thinking, which holds that if the immune system is not fighting a cancer, it must be boosted somehow to do the job. Dr. Curiel’s studies are conducted in the framework of a new “too much of a bad thing” model, which holds that elements of the immune system that the cancer microenvironment has converted into harmful agents must be dealt with to effectively treat a cancer.
“The recruitment of Dr. Curiel is a transformational event for the Health Science Center,” said Brian Herman, Ph.D., vice president for research. “His skill sets are highly appropriate to lead the San Antonio Cancer Institute and the oncology program at the Health Science Center to an outstanding future of excellence, growth and expansion.”
