TTUHSC Scientist Receives $1 Million Grant for Amarillo Campus

The Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas has awarded a $1 million grant to Quentin Smith, Sr., Ph.D. and a team of collaborating faculty investigators and basic scientists from the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine in Amarillo. Smith is associate dean for sciences research and a University Distinguished Professor for the SOP.

The grant will allow the researchers to purchase a major research instrument that will support the nationally competitive research programs being conducted in Amarillo by TTUHSC research faculty. The piece of equipment, known as a confocal/multiphoton laser scanning microscope, will allow researchers to view images of drugs and cancer cells in the tissues of living organisms. It can also be used to explore the mechanisms associated with cell signaling and cell invasion within the body so that new therapeutic drugs can be tested.

Key investigators expected to use the equipment include Smith, Dr. Zonghan Dai from TTUHSC-SOM and TTUHSC-SOP researchers Drs. Ming-hai Wang, Ruiwen Zhang, Junxuan Lu and Paul Lockman.

The TTUHSC Amarillo campus opened its new Amarillo Research Building in 2009. Earlier this year the campus received matching funds from the TTUHSC administration to purchase two additional major new pieces of multi-user research equipment.

“The faculty's success with individual awards, coupled with the new facilities and equipment, will also strengthen the training of our graduate and Pharm.D. students who are engaged in laboratory research,” SOP Dean Arthur Nelson, Jr., Ph.D said.

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