Renowned oncologist, Zheng, brings $500,000 UT System STARs award to UT Health San Antonio

Lei Zheng, MD, PhD, executive director of the Mays Cancer Center at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio), has been awarded a $500,000 Translational Science and Technology Acquisition and Retention (STARs) award from The University of Texas System to elevate his research into monitoring pancreatic tumor progression as well as treatment efficacy.

Zheng, a proud alumnus of UT Health San Antonio who joined the institution on Sept. 1, 2024, is the vice president for oncology for the health science center, as well as the Mays Family Foundation Distinguished University Presidential Chair of Oncology and a professor with tenure in the Department of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio's Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine.

"My research focuses on the understanding of pancreatic cancer development and treatment. Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive malignancy often with metastasis at the time of diagnosis and broadly resistant to current treatment modalities," Zheng said. "We have used an orthotopic mouse pancreatic cancer model to study factors involved in the tumor environment that contribute to tumor metastasis, which is one of the major causes of death in this devastating disease. The mouse orthotopic pancreatic cancer model has allowed us to evaluate the efficacy of different combinations of treatment regimens for potential clinical applications. The second area our lab focuses on is the development of platform trials to translate concepts proven in the preclinical level to the clinical stage."

The UT System Board of Regents created The UT System STARs program in 2004 to attract and retain promising research-active faculty members at the 14 UT institutions across the state of Texas.