Contact: Will Sansom
Phone: (210) 567-2579
E-mail: sansom@uthscsa.edu

LEE
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San Antonio (Feb. 27, 2007) – Many blood cancers are caused by chromosomal translocations — an abnormal rearrangement of genetic material. A team of researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, led by Sang Eun Lee, Ph.D., is studying the mechanisms of chromosomal translocations that lead to blood cancer, and identifying the gene mutations that predispose patients to these abnormal genetic rearrangements. The team is also working to identify the control pathways — the mechanisms by which cells receive control signals from other cells — that can ordinarily block such abnormal translocations and prevent the mutations that cause the development of cancer cells.

Dr. Lee has been awarded a Scholar Award from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The award will be effective as of July 2007 and will go for five years for a total of $500,000. The scholar program provides funding to highly qualified investigators conducting original research on leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma.

“My research team focuses on how cells repair damage to the DNA double helix,” Dr Lee explained. “If we can better understand how to repair the damage, we may be able to prevent the abnormal cell arrangements from getting through to cause the disease. We use the budding yeast as a model system to recreate molecular events that lead to chromosomal translocations, the most frequent chromosome abnormality found in leukemias and lymphomas. The goal is to identify genetic risk factors associated with this process and alter them for clinical use."


Deborah Banker, Ph.D., the society’s vice president of research communications, added, “By identifying and characterizing the mechanisms that cause chromosomal translocations and developing a better understanding of the mechanisms that block this abnormal behavior, the work being done by Dr. Lee and his team show great promise in bringing about new therapies to prevent or treat blood cancer patients.”

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society®, headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., is the world’s largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services. The Society’s mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $536 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $14.3 billion biosciences and health care industry, the leading sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 22,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, click on www.uthscsa.edu.