Houston-based University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas at Austin have launched a partnership in support of research projects designed to improve cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and survival.
The partnership will function under a joint initiative called the Collaborative Accelerator for Transformative Research Endeavors, according to a March 25 news release from MD Anderson.
The accelerator has awarded up to $4.5 million to five teams of 65 researchers from both institutions. The teams will conduct their research over the next 4.5 years with the goal of securing external funding for their project after 2029, the release said.
The five projects are:
- EMPATHIC: Environmental Microplastics and systemic PATHology, Inflammation and Carcinogenesis, which will work to address microplastic pollution potential contribution to rising cancer rates.
- Metal Intervention Network and Therapy (MINT) Program: Studying and Targeting Metal Response in Tumor Radioresistance, which will study and develop new metal-based therapies to overcome radiation therapy resistance.
- TRIUMPH-IBC: Translating Research Insights at UT Austin and MD Anderson into Progress & Hope for Inflammatory Breast Cancer, which will work to identify new treatments for inflammatory and triple-negative breast cancers.
- IG-RABIT: Image-Guided, Robot-Assisted, Biomechanically-Informed Osteotomy and Surgical Implants for Orthopaedic Oncology, which will use computer modeling, robotics and imaging technology to create and place personalized surgical implants to treat tumors in the spine, sacrum and pelvis.
- AI-Enabled, Digital Companion Learning for Protein-Targetable Cancer Phenotypes, which will develop an AI-assisted learning companion that provides treatment options for patients with rare and complex cancers.
Learn more about each project here.