Latino Researchers among Recipients of $8 Million in Grants for Cancer Research

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Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez

Several Latino researchers were among those awarded $7.6 million to prevent cancer this week at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, thanks to the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research (IHPR) at the Health Science Center, the team behind SaludToday, was awarded a $1.4 million grant.

Ramirez will develop bilingual, culturally appropriate social and mobile messages and channels to recruit young adult Latino smokers to sign up for a text-message-based tobacco cessation service.

“Smoking is a problem among young adult Latinos in South Texas, but there are no culturally relevant programs that utilize Latinos’ heavy usage of social media and texting to help them quit,” Ramirez said. “If our project goes as planned, it will increase young adult Latinos’ use of tobacco cessation services, and provide a model service that can be cost-effectively replicated across Texas.”

Two other IHPR researchers, Dr. Daisy Morales-Campos and Dr. Deborah Parra-Medina, received a $150,000 grant.

Their project will increase HPV immunization rates using public education and clinic in-reach strategies among young Hispanic males and females in Hidalgo County clinics.

“This program has the potential to reduce cervical cancer incidence and mortality among Hispanic women in Texas’ Lower Rio Grande Valley,” Morales-Campos said.

Also, Dr. Ricardo Aguiar, associate professor of medicine and biochemistry at the Health Science Center, got a $854,740 grant focused on “Inactivating Mutation of D2HGDH Establishes a Novel Link Between Metabolism, Alpha-KG Dependent Dioxygenases and Epigenetic Reprogramming in B Cell Lymphoma.”

Check out a San Antonio Business Journal report on the new grants.

By The Numbers By The Numbers

25.1

percent

of Latinos remain without health insurance coverage

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