Grant to help El Paso medical university further its breast cancer research

The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso is creating a new lab focusing on breast cancer thanks to a $2 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

The lab will be headed by Dr. Shrikanth Gadad and will complement cancer research already being conducted at the university’s Center of Emphasis in Cancer, which is headed by Dr. Rajkumar Lakshmanaswamy.

Lakshmanaswamy’s research focuses on the type of genes that produce proteins while Gadad’s research will focus on genes that do not produce proteins.

“The concept that Gadad is bringing in is really new and it will help us understand the process of cancer growth and how it becomes aggressive,” Lakshmanaswamy said in a news release,” Using that, we can actually come up with some strategies to prevent the growth of these cancers.”

El Paso Mayor Dee Margo praised the recruitment of Dr. Gadad. “It demonstrates our City’s status as a serious player in life-sciences research,” Margo said in a news release, “Cancer disproportionately affects Texans on the border and this requires us to build a stronger cancer-fighting ecosystem right here.”