DALLAS – May 21, 2026 – When activated in ovarian cancer cells, the receptor for the body’s primary stress hormone alters the tumor environment in ways that blunt immune response, according to new research led by UT Southwestern Medical Center. The findings, published in Endocrinology, identify a previously unrecognized role for the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in shaping the ovarian cancer tumor microenvironment.

“Understanding master regulators (like GR) of tumor cell evasion from the immune system could lead to more effective treatment of ovarian cancer – both in combination with chemotherapy and eventually with immunotherapy,” said corresponding author Suzanne Conzen, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine, Chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology, and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

Suzanne Conzen, M.D., is Professor of Internal Medicine, Chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology, and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. She holds the Andrea L. Simmons Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research.

Most ovarian tumors exist in a so-called “cold” state, meaning they attract few immune cells needed to mount an effective attack, but what drives that state has been poorly defined. The Conzen Lab previously found that ovarian cancers with high GR expression are linked to shorter periods of progression-free survival among patients, suggesting the receptor plays an important role in how the disease progresses.

In the new study, the team examined ovarian cancer cells from humans and mice, mouse tumor models, and large databases of patient tumor data. They found that when GR was switched on inside cancer cells, the cells released a mix of chemical signals that summoned immune-suppressing cells into the tumor. Those recruited cells, which are more abundant in patients with worse outcomes, shut down the immune system’s ability to attack the cancer.

When the researchers blocked GR, either with a drug called relacorilant or by genetically removing the receptor from tumor cells, the suppressive signals dropped. Fewer immune-suppressing cells made their way into tumors, and more of the immune cells that fight cancer moved in. 

The findings also align with clinical progress already underway. The Food and Drug Administration recently approved relacorilant combined with nab-paclitaxel for platinum-resistant ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer. The phase three trial supporting that approval was based on a series of earlier research from Dr. Conzen and her colleagues showing that GR activity helps ovarian cancer cells survive chemotherapy. The new UTSW findings suggest the drug may also reawaken antitumor immunity.

“Future clinical trials will likely examine whether GR modulation could assist with immunotherapy responses in ovarian cancer,” Dr. Conzen said.

Other UTSW researchers in the Division of Hematology and Oncology who contributed to this study are first author and postdoctoral researcher Manisha Taya, Ph.D.; Tryambak Srivastava, Ph.D., and Woei-Yaw Chee, Ph.D., postdoctoral researchers; Andrew W. DeVilbiss, Ph.D., Instructor; and Lynda Bennett, Ph.D., Assistant Professor.

Dr. Conzen holds the Andrea L. Simmons Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research and is a member of the Experimental Therapeutics Research Program at Simmons Cancer Center.

This study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (CA223426), the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (RR1900371), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA142543).

Dr. Conzen holds patents through the University of Chicago on methods related to using GR expression in triple-negative breast and prostate cancer prognosis and treatment and has received honoraria from Corcept Therapeutics for advisory board service related to breast cancer. UT Southwestern has a patent application pending on GR transcriptional activity in ovarian cancer.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 27 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of nearly 3,400 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.

DALLAS – May 19, 2026 – Scientists at Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have discovered that large pieces of DNA can transfer directly between human cells, and the DNA can persist and change how the recipient cell functions. The findings, published today in Cell, challenge a long-standing view that the genomes of individual human cells evolve independently from one another.

The study shows DNA damage and errors in cell division can cause pieces of genomic DNA to escape from the nucleus and move into nearby cells through nanotubes – thin, tubelike structures that briefly form when some cells come into contact.

Once inside a recipient cell, transferred DNA can enter the nucleus and become incorporated into the cell’s genome. Researchers found that transferred DNA persisted through multiple rounds of cell division, remained biologically active, and conferred new traits to recipient cells.

“This was a surprising discovery,” said study leader Peter Ly, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in CRI and of Cell Biology, Pediatrics, and in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Our findings suggest neighboring cells may be able to directly reshape one another’s genomes in ways we did not anticipate.” 

Study first author Elizabeth Maurais, Ph.D., a recent graduate of the Genetics, Development and Disease Program at UT Southwestern, and other Ly Lab researchers uncovered this process while studying how cells respond to genomic instability, including DNA damage caused by chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Live-cell microscopy shows a DNA-containing micronucleus (green) moving directly from one human cell into a nearby cell (red).

Using advanced live-cell microscopy, the team observed DNA moving from one cell to another. In one experiment, pieces of the Y chromosome transferred from male cells into female cells. The transferred DNA carried male-specific genes that became active in the female cells, indicating the transferred DNA remained functional after entering the recipient cell.

“There are many open questions. We now want to understand how widespread this process is, how it is regulated at the cellular and molecular levels, and what role it may play in human health and disease, including cancer,” Dr. Ly said. “These findings may have important implications for understanding how cancer genomes evolve and acquire large-scale chromosomal alterations.” 

Researchers also observed DNA transfer between different types of human cells, which Dr. Ly said suggests the findings may be a general feature of human cell biology. 

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the U.S. Department of Defense, The Welch Foundation, a UT Southwestern Haberecht Wildhare-Idea Research Grant, a UT Southwestern Synergy Grant for Collaborative Research, and the Oklahoma Center for Adult Stem Cell Research.

Dr. Ly is a CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research. Dr. Maurais received an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Predoctoral Fellowship from the National Cancer Institute.

About CRI

Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) is a joint venture of UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center Dallas. CRI’s mission is to perform transformative biomedical research to better understand the biological basis of disease. Located in Dallas, Texas, CRI is home to interdisciplinary groups of scientists and physicians pursuing research at the interface of regenerative medicine, cancer biology, and metabolism – relentless discovery toward the treatments of tomorrow.

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About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 27 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of nearly 3,400 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.

DALLAS – May 14, 2026 – UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have discovered a key molecular mechanism that allows animals to adapt to changing environmental conditions without altering their genes – an ability known as phenotypic plasticity. The findings, published in Science Signaling, provide a foundation for future studies that could lead to new treatments for a wide range of diseases and disorders, including inflammatory and immune conditions, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer.

Benjamin Weaver, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology and a Virginia Murchison Linthicum Scholar in Medical Research at UT Southwestern.

“This work has just unearthed a vastly underexplored area of basic biology: understanding how changes in the environment can trigger an array of responses within a population of animals. In the future, better understanding of phenotypic plasticity will provide us with a unique opportunity to tune distinct outcomes, leading to healthier responses to stressful environmental conditions,” said study leader Benjamin Weaver, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology and a Virginia Murchison Linthicum Scholar in Medical Research at UT Southwestern.

The Weaver Lab studies interactions between genes and the environment that affect health. For decades, a key question in this field is how organisms cope with extreme environmental stressors such as excessive heat or cold, heavy exposure to ultraviolet light, or long periods of dehydration or starvation – particularly stressors that individuals have never experienced. Although new genetic variants to help survive challenging conditions can evolve over time, changes to the genome typically take millennia.

“Animals aren’t worried about what will happen 10 million years from now – they’re worried about how to survive in the next five minutes,” Dr. Weaver said. “Yet, how does an animal change its characteristics without changing its genes?”

To answer this question, he and his colleagues focused on a protein called mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) p38. This protein had long been recognized as a stress sensor with diverse roles in development, and it’s found in organisms throughout the animal kingdom as well as in yeast. Previously, it was believed that p38 acted like a switch, turning on or off various molecular pathways in response to changing conditions. But these responses can be opposing even in the same condition, Dr. Weaver explained. For example, p38 appears to promote both cell survival and cell death; in cancer, it can act as both a tumor suppressor and a tumor promoter.

Noted Dr. Weaver: “p38 seems to play both sides of every game.”

To better understand this protein’s role in a live animal, the researchers developed a new analytical method called ContinuumID. It serves as a molecular proximity sensor, allowing researchers to see which proteins come into contact with a selected protein across different tissues, development stages, and environmental conditions.

Dr. Weaver and two of his colleagues – Wang Yuan, Ph.D., Research Scientist and the study's first author, and Yi Weaver, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, both in the Weaver Lab – developed this method for use on a p38 family member known as PMK-1 in Caenorhabditis elegans, a roundworm commonly used as a lab model. The researchers found that PMK-1 appeared to interact with more than 1,000 proteins, most of them only under certain circumstances. The connections occurred in different tissues, at different stages of development, and in response to different stressors. When the team examined the known roles of these proteins, most were involved in regulating gene expression.

Additional experiments showed that the same stressor prompted a variety of responses among individual C. elegans worms, even in worms that were genetic clones. These results suggest that PMK-1 doesn’t act as a switch that just turns on and off, but more like a thermostat that can produce a range of outcomes.

This flexibility could help explain why PMK-1 and its counterpart p38 in mammals have been conserved throughout evolution in all animal species, Dr. Weaver said. Although specific outcomes may not benefit every individual, having a range could ensure survival of the population.

The researchers plan to continue studying p38 to better understand how it senses stress and determines which proteins to interact with – knowledge that could help steer its behavior toward healthful responses.

Also contributing to this study was Luke A. Nunamaker, B.S., Research Technician at UT Southwestern.

This study was funded by grants from The Welch Foundation (I-2260-20250403), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R35GM133755), and the National Institute on Aging (R21AG086710).

Dr. Weaver is a member of the Cellular Networks in Cancer Research Program in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center as well as the Hamon Center for Regenerative Science and Medicine at UT Southwestern.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 27 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of nearly 3,400 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.

Benjamin Sabari, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Cecil H. and Ida Green Center for Reproductive Biology Sciences and of Molecular Biology and Obstetrics and Gynecology at UT Southwestern.

The Sabari Lab studies the roles in health and disease of biomolecular condensates, dynamic networks of interacting proteins within cells that help control when genes are turned on and off. In 2023, Dr. Sabari and his colleagues showed that chemical features of some parts of proteins known as intrinsically disordered regions encourage these proteins to join together into biomolecular condensates. A study the team published two years later reported that some fusion proteins – mutant proteins caused by the melding of two genes – drive select cancers by confining an enzyme called RNA polymerase II within biomolecular condensates.

Discovering ways to inhibit this process could lead to new treatments for some cancers by allowing researchers to control the behavior of specific oncogenes, genes that encourage the development and spread of cancer, Dr. Sabari explained.

“The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize will empower my lab to pursue a high-risk, high-reward direction that existing funding mechanisms are not designed to support: developing new strategies to target the unique multivalent molecular organization of oncogenic transcription rather than generally inhibiting transcription,” he said. “If successful, this work will establish a new paradigm for treating cancers driven by dysregulation of gene transcription.”

Dr. Sabari joined the faculty at UT Southwestern in 2020. He was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Whitehead Institute. He earned his bachelor’s degree in molecular genetics from the University of Rochester and his doctoral degree at The Rockefeller University as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. He is a member of the Cellular Networks in Cancer Research Program in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Prize is funded by the Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance, formed in 2013 by The Pershing Square Foundation. The Alliance is dedicated to accelerating cures for cancer by supporting innovative cancer research and facilitating collaborations between academia and industry. Previously awarded only to cancer research scientists and physician-scientists based in the greater New York City area, the Prize became open to scientists across the U.S. this year.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 27 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of nearly 3,400 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.

DALLAS – May 01, 2026 – Loss of an enzyme necessary for a process called lipoylation disrupts the way cancer cells copy their DNA, increasing their vulnerability to a class of anticancer drugs known as PARP inhibitors, a study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers shows. The findings, published in Science Advances, reveal a previously unrecognized mechanism to protect DNA replication and genome stability that could lead to new treatments for some cancers.  

Yuanyuan “Faith” Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

“This study shows that metabolism doesn’t just fuel cancer cells – it also directly shapes how DNA is copied and protected. This helps explain why inhibiting lipoylation could make tumors especially sensitive to PARP inhibitors,” said Yuanyuan “Faith” Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology and a member of the Experimental Therapeutics Research Program in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. Dr. Zhang co-led the study with first author Zengfu Shang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology in the Zhang Lab.

Lipoylation is a process in which an enzyme called LIPT1 adds lipoic acid to other enzymes in the energy-producing organelles known as mitochondria. In 2025, Dr. Zhang, Dr. Shang, and their colleagues showed that blocking lipoylation with a drug called CPI-613 enhanced the effect of radiation in preclinical models of lung cancer. That study showed that this effect stemmed from problems in DNA damage repair.

To better understand this phenomenon, researchers used gene editing to delete the LIPT1-producing gene in three different cell lines. Each altered cell line multiplied significantly slower and formed fewer colonies than unaltered cells. Further investigation suggested that this behavior was due to replication stress, an impaired ability of cells to copy their DNA in preparation for cell division.

Further experiments showed that deleting LIPT1 led to an accumulation of the metabolite 2-hydroxyglutarate, which caused DNA to become tightly compacted in cell nuclei. In turn, this slowed new DNA synthesis at replication forks, structures in which double strands of DNA separate to begin the copying process. The cells’ attempt to restart the stalled replication fork subsequently prompted the formation of single-strand DNA breaks that necessitated repair with another protein known as poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase 1, or PARP1.

Zengfu Shang, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at UT Southwestern.

PARP1 is a known target for PARP inhibitors, a class of cancer-fighting drugs, Dr. Shang explained. When the team treated cells missing LIPT1 with a PARP inhibitor, the cancer cells couldn’t repair their damaged DNA, a deficit that proved lethal.

Drs. Zhang and Shang said that low levels of LIPT1, frequently present in some cancer types, could potentially serve as a biomarker for sensitivity to PARP inhibitors. Similarly, combining CPI-613 – a lipoylation inhibitor designated as an orphan drug by the Food and Drug Administration with well-documented safety data in cancer patients – with PARP inhibitors could offer a new strategy for treating non-small cell lung cancers and other cancer types with low LIPT1. The team plans to investigate both possibilities in future studies.

Other UTSW researchers who contributed to this study are Anthony J. Davis, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology; Ching-Cheng Hsu, Ph.D., Research Associate; Jui-Chung Chiang, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow; and Ciara Newman, B.S., a former research assistant who is now a graduate student researcher.

This study was funded by a Lung SPORE Career Enhancement Award; a Distinguished Researcher Award from the President’s Research Council; an Institutional Research Grant from the American Cancer Society (IRG-21-142-16); a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA142543); awards from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (KL2TR003981 and CTSA-PP-YR1-D-009); a Startup Award from UT Southwestern Department of Radiation Oncology; a Disease-Oriented Clinical Scholar Award from UT Southwestern; and grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01CA276058 and R01CA29290), the Department of Energy (DE-SC0025578), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (20-20HHCSR_2-0033).

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 27 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of nearly 3,400 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.

Intervention to promote hydration fails to reduce kidney stone recurrence

About 1 in 11 people in the U.S. experience urinary stone disease – more commonly known as kidney stones – according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Increasing fluid intake has long been recommended to decrease the risk of recurrence in those who develop this painful condition. However, studies have shown that maintaining high fluid intake can be difficult.

A nationwide team of researchers including Naim Maalouf, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Associate Director of the Charles and Jane Pak Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research at UT Southwestern Medical Center, conducted the Prevention of Urinary Stones with Hydration (PUSH) clinical trial at six U.S. academic medical centers between 2017 and 2024 to test whether a behavioral intervention could increase fluid intake over two years. In Dallas, participants were recruited from UTSW, Parkland Health, and Children’s Health.

The researchers divided 1,658 adolescents and adults who had experienced a kidney stone within the past three years into two groups, with each given recommendations to increase urine output to at least 10.5 cups per day. To achieve this goal, one group received a personalized “fluid prescription”; a Bluetooth-enabled “smart” water bottle; a financial incentive to meet daily water intake; health coaching to troubleshoot fluid intake barriers; and additional help of their choice, including encouraging text messages or a support partner. The other group received the smart water bottle and general instructions for stone prevention, but no other assistance.

Results published in The Lancet showed the group that received the multifaceted intervention had slightly more urine output than the other group. However, the rates of kidney stone recurrence were approximately the same between the two groups. Further research is needed to find more innovative ways to increase water consumption to levels that effectively prevent kidney stone formation, and to identify alternative strategies for stone prevention including diet and/or medications, the study authors said.

Many older adults diagnosed with cancer in the emergency department

More than 1 in 3 older U.S. adults with common cancers are diagnosed during an emergency department (ED) visit – a pathway linked to poorer outcomes and gaps in routine care, according to a study published in JNCI Cancer Spectrum. The study analyzed Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)‑Medicare data from over 600,000 patients 66 and older who were diagnosed with 14 cancer types between 2008 and 2017.

Most emergency diagnoses resulted in hospitalization, according to the data. However, a notable subgroup – those diagnosed in the ED who were not admitted – were more likely to live in rural areas and have earlier-stage disease. Compared with patients diagnosed in nonemergency situations, those with emergency diagnoses had more prior emergency room visits and less outpatient care for possible cancer symptoms.

The findings suggest that some emergency diagnoses reflect missed opportunities for timely detection and access to routine care. Identifying and reducing avoidable barriers could improve cancer outcomes and inform health care quality metrics.

Contributing to the study were Sandi Pruitt, Ph.D., Professor, and Megan Mullins, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, both in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern. Drs. Pruitt and Mullins are members of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Children on life support show biological signs of brain injury

A study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that critically ill children receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) often show biological signs of brain injury that may not be detected through routine clinical assessments. The multicenter study measured blood-based biomarkers associated with brain injury in 219 children treated with ECMO between 2019 and 2023 and examined how those markers related to neurologic outcomes and survival.

Researchers found that several plasma biomarkers were elevated during ECMO support and were associated with acute brain injury and poorer clinical outcomes. Levels of these biomarkers changed over time, suggesting ongoing neurologic risk during treatment.

The findings signal that blood-based biomarkers could help clinicians identify brain injury earlier, monitor neurologic risk during ECMO, and potentially guide strategies to protect the developing brain in critically ill children.

Michael Bell, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Critical Care at UT Southwestern, contributed to this study.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center 

UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 24 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of nearly 3,400 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.

About Parkland Health

Parkland Health is one of the largest public hospital systems in the country. Premier services at the state-of-the-art Parkland Memorial Hospital include the Level I Rees-Jones Trauma Center, the only burn center in North Texas verified by the American Burn Association for adult and pediatric patients, and a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The system also includes two on-campus outpatient clinics – the Ron J. Anderson, MD Clinic and the Moody Outpatient Center, as well as more than 30 community-based clinics and numerous outreach and education programs. By cultivating its diversity, inclusion, and health equity efforts, Parkland enriches the health and wellness of the communities it serves. For more information, visit parklandhealth.org.

DALLAS – April 14, 2026 – Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Biology at UT Southwestern Medical Center and one of the world’s top researchers on how the body’s immune system protects against threats such as bacteria and viruses, has been awarded the 2026 Japan Prize in Life Sciences – one of the highest international honors for science and technology.

The award recognizes Dr. Chen’s discoveries related to the innate immune system including cyclic GMP-AMP synthase, or cGAS, which acts as the body’s burglar alarm to trigger defense from invading pathogens. Dr. Chen shares this year’s Japan Prize with Shizuo Akira, M.D., Ph.D., Professor at Osaka University.

Zhijian "James" Chen, Ph.D., is Professor of Molecular Biology and Director of the Center for Inflammation Research at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science.

“I am extremely honored and humbled to be selected to receive the Japan Prize,” said Dr. Chen, who is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Director of the Center for Inflammation Research at UT Southwestern. “This recognition validates the collaborative work of scientists at UT Southwestern and worldwide to expand our understanding of human disease. I am grateful to the students, postdoctoral fellows, and staff members in my lab for their hard work and to the leadership at UT Southwestern for their unwavering support.”

“Dr. Chen’s breakthroughs have significantly advanced the field of immunology, paving the way for new approaches to the development of more effective vaccines and novel therapies for a broad range of diseases, including cancer and autoimmune disorders,” said Daniel K. Podolsky, M.D., President of UT Southwestern. “The entire UT Southwestern community takes great pride in seeing the impact of Dr. Chen’s work recognized by this very special high honor.”

The Japan Prize was presented in Tokyo on April 14, during Japan Prize Week, which included award ceremonies attended by the Emperor and Empress of Japan and commemorative lectures by the laureates.

Established in 1983, the Japan Prize is awarded annually to scientists and researchers from around the world, recognizing individuals who have contributed significantly to peace and prosperity through original and outstanding achievements that have greatly advanced the progress of science and technology.

Dr. Chen’s discoveries have elucidated the process by which the human body fights off invasive viruses, bacteria, and other microbes. In 2012, his laboratory identified cGAS, which triggers the innate immune system when it detects foreign DNA inside a cell. Earlier, he identified the first mitochondrial protein known to be involved in immunity against infections, which he dubbed MAVS, describing its function (mitochondrial antiviral signaling) and honoring his favorite basketball team, the Dallas Mavericks.

His research has been recognized with some of the most esteemed awards in science, including the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (2025), the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award (2024), the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2023), and the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2019), among others.

Dr. Chen is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom. At UTSW, he is a member of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense as well as the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. He holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science.

DALLAS – Jan. 12, 2026 – UT Southwestern Medical Center has received an award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop livers using patients’ own cells and an innovative three-dimensional (3D) printing approach. If successful, this project – known as Vascularized Immunocompetent Tissue as an Alternative Liver (VITAL) – could significantly reduce the gap between supply and demand for donor livers, negate the necessity of lifelong immunosuppression for liver transplant patients, and create artificial livers for in vitro drug testing and research. The project is under ARPA-H’s Personalized Regenerative Immunocompetent Nanotechnology Tissue (PRINT) program, which is led by ARPA-H Program Manager Ryan Spitler, Ph.D.

Muhammad Rizwan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Ophthalmology at UT Southwestern, is the project’s principal investigator.

“Over the last two decades, researchers have made remarkable progress toward the goal of creating lab-made organs, including innovations in biomaterials, stem cell differentiation, and bioprinting. UT Southwestern is an ideal environment to bring together the recent advances that have never been combined before,” said the project’s principal investigator, Muhammad Rizwan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Ophthalmology at UT Southwestern.

Each year, liver cirrhosis and chronic liver diseases cause about 50,000 deaths in the U.S. As of September 2024, nearly 10,000 people were on the waiting list for a donor liver, with wait times averaging about seven months, according to the Health Resources & Services Administration. Statistics show that up to 31% of patients die while waiting for a donor liver.

Researchers have attempted to narrow the gap between donor liver supply and demand in many ways, such as pursuing living donors or improving technology that keeps cadaver donor livers healthy for a longer time before transplant, said Madhukar Patel, M.D., M.B.A., Sc.M., Assistant Professor of Surgery at UTSW, Surgical Director of the Liver Transplantation Program, and a Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care. However, none of these approaches has significantly resolved the lack of sufficient donor livers. Finding a way to generate artificial livers that function as well as natural ones could offer a solution, he explained. Artificial livers may also address other issues inherent to organ transplants, such as the need for lifelong immunosuppression and the high cost of liver transplantation, which averages nearly $1 million.

Madhukar Patel, M.D., M.B.A., Sc.M., is Assistant Professor of Surgery at UT Southwestern, Surgical Director of the Liver Transplantation Program, and a Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care.

Toward that goal, ARPA-H recently awarded UTSW up to $25 million for VITAL. In this project, researchers across UTSW, including Drs. Rizwan and Patel, will work together to harvest cells from liver disease patients and facilitate their conversion into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which can become any cell type in the body. Jun Wu, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Molecular Biology, whose lab specializes in working with iPSCs, will lead research to reprogram the patient cells into iPSCs and convert these cells into the various cell types that make up livers. The team will then combine these cells with a hydrogel “bioink” that can be used for 3D printing of functioning livers. These bioprinted livers will first be tested in small and large animal models and potentially within humans in about five years, Dr. Rizwan said. Collaborators from Pennsylvania State University, led by Ibrahim T. Ozbolat, and the University of California, Davis, will assist with improving the 3D printing technology and GMP cell manufacturing.

Researchers at UTSW and elsewhere have successfully created liver tissue by converting iPSCs to liver cells. However, Dr. Rizwan said, a major roadblock to scaling this tissue into an artificial liver is the lack of blood vessels and bile ducts, tubes that remove bile acids that build up from normal liver function. He and his colleagues have discovered a novel approach for growing both blood vessels and bile ducts within generated liver tissue, making it possible to create a fully functional artificial liver. Moreover, Dr. Rizwan is establishing a scalable organoid manufacturing facility at UT Southwestern.

Because the resulting organ will be custom-made from a patient’s own cells, he added, transplanted livers won’t require immunosuppression. In addition, he estimates a bioprinted liver could be generated in 10-13 weeks. These artificial organs won’t just be useful for transplantation, Dr. Rizwan explained. The process of developing livers from scratch is expected to lend insight into how natural livers function, helping researchers solve long-standing mysteries about this organ. Artificial livers will also be used to evaluate the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals in development.

Samuel Achilefu, Ph.D., is inaugural Chair of Biomedical Engineering and Professor in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and of Radiology at UT Southwestern and a co-investigator on this project.

The wealth of expertise and collaboration available at UTSW makes it an ideal location for developing artificial livers, said Samuel Achilefu, Ph.D., inaugural Chair of Biomedical Engineering and Professor in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and of Radiology at UTSW. A co-investigator on this project, he will use his expertise in noninvasive imaging to evaluate the performance of the bioprinted livers.

UTSW has a robust solid organ transplant program that recently celebrated its 1,000th liver transplant and houses experts across the spectrum needed for developing artificial livers. In addition, the seven UTSW researchers leading portions of this project, the 11 core facilities they will use, and UTSW’s hepatology clinics are all within walking distance, facilitating teamwork.

“This project represents a bold step toward advancing patient care through biomedical innovation,” Dr. Achilefu said. “It unites engineers, clinicians, and scientists to transform discovery into real-world solutions, shaping a future where functional organ printing becomes reality.”

Other UTSW co-investigators involved in the project are Hao Zhu, M.D., Professor of Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern; Walter Akers, Ph.D., D.V.M., Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering; and Yasin Dhaher, Ph.D., Professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.

Dr. Wu is a Virginia Murchison Linthicum Scholar in Medical Research. Dr. Achilefu holds the Lyda Hill Distinguished University Chair in Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Zhu holds the Nancy B. and Jake L. Hamon Distinguished Chair in Therapeutic Oncology Research. Drs. Achilefu, Akers, Rizwan, Wu, and Zhu are members of the Simmons Cancer Center.

This publication was supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) under Award Number D25AC000239-00, providing up to $24,939,120 for a 60-month period. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.

DALLAS – March 25, 2026 – UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified how the quintessential immune protein known as stimulator of interferon genes (STING) migrates from one cellular organelle to another, a necessary step in its activation. The findings, reported in Cell, could eventually lead to new therapeutics that harness this system to fight infections, cancer, autoimmune disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases.

“Our study revealed structural insight on how STING achieves a controlled exit from the endoplasmic reticulum, which is essential for a balanced immune response,” said Nan Yan, Ph.D., Vice Chair and Professor of Immunology and Professor of Microbiology at UT Southwestern. Dr. Yan co-led the study with first author Heng Lyu, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Yan Lab.

Nan Yan, Ph.D., is Vice Chair and Professor of Immunology and Professor of Microbiology and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. He holds the Edwin L. Cox Distinguished Chair in Immunology and Genetics and is a Rita C. and William P. Clements, Jr. Scholar in Medical Research.

STING is a key part of the innate immune system, which provides broad and early protection against foreign invaders – such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites – as well as cancer. One trigger for innate immunity is DNA in the cytoplasm of cells. A protein called cGAS, discovered in 2012 by Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Biology and Director of the Center for Inflammation Research at UT Southwestern, senses this DNA. In response, it produces a molecule called cGAMP that binds to STING, which resides in a cellular organelle called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) when it’s inactive.

After cGAMP binding, STING molecules are turned on, linking in a string (a process called oligomerization) and migrating to an organelle called the Golgi – a process the Yan Lab discovered in 2015. There, they activate additional molecules in a signaling cascade that prompts immune activity. STING’s oligomerization is necessary for this to occur.

Recent research led by Dr. Chen and colleagues, reported in two papers published concurrently in Nature, provided mechanistic and structural insight into how STING oligomerizes and why it needs to move from the ER to the Golgi. But how STING makes this migration and why oligomerization is critical to this process has been unclear.

To answer these questions, Dr. Yan and his team genetically engineered cells to delete four proteins that belong to a group called SEC24, which ferries proteins from the ER to other cellular locations. In those missing the protein known as SEC24C, STING could no longer initiate its immune signaling cascade when stimulated with a synthetic analog of cGAMP. These results suggest SEC24C moves STING from the ER to the Golgi.

Heng Lyu, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher in the Yan Lab at UT Southwestern.

To further confirm the interaction between these two proteins, the researchers used AlphaFold3 – a powerful artificial intelligence program that predicts the shape of proteins from their genetic sequence. They wanted to determine how SEC24C might bind to a pair of STING molecules attached together, the state in which STING exists in the ER. Their findings showed SEC24C appears to bind to STING in a region without a defined structure.

When the researchers mutated this region on STING, it no longer left the ER to migrate to the Golgi. The team had similar results when it mutated the region on SEC24C that AlphaFold3 predicted would bind to STING. These results suggested the disordered region on STING binds to a corresponding region on SEC24C to exit the ER.

Similarly, preventing STING from oligomerizing also stopped it from leaving the ER. A closer look showed that, unlike other proteins that SEC24C ferries from the ER to other cellular locations, STING’s disordered region is too short to bind strongly to the corresponding region on SEC24C. Thus, oligomerization is critical for creating a longer molecule that binds more strongly to SEC24C. This imperfect binding could be a way for cells to limit how easily STING is activated, Dr. Yan explained – an important protection against chronic STING activation that causes autoimmune disorders.

Further experiments showed that mutating the disordered region so it couldn’t bind to SEC24C impaired STING’s ability to fight off viral infections in cells. Conversely, mutations that increased binding strength to SEC24C boosted STING activity, helping it fight tumors in an animal cancer model.

Using drugs to tinker with STING’s binding to SEC24C could represent a new strategy for decreasing STING’s activity, possibly leading to treatments for autoimmune or neurodegenerative conditions, or for increasing it, potentially fighting infections or cancer. Dr. Yan and his colleagues plan to continue research toward this goal.

Other UTSW researchers who contributed to this study are Xuewu Zhang, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology and Biophysics; Wanwan Huai, Ph.D., Kun Song, Ph.D., and Hui Zhang, Ph.D., postdoctoral researchers; and Cong Xing, B.S., graduate student researcher.

Dr. Yan holds the Edwin L. Cox Distinguished Chair in Immunology and Genetics and is a Rita C. and William P. Clements, Jr. Scholar in Medical Research. Dr. Chen holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science. Drs. Yan and Chen are members of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

This study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (AI151708 and R01CA273595), the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (RP220242), and The Welch Foundation (I-1702).

About UT Southwestern Medical Center 

UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 24 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,300 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.

The partnership centers on InterAct’s proprietary computational engine, which “cracks the biological code” of how cancer spreads, according to the company. The lead asset, IAT-S2, is a validated AAV8-based gene therapy specifically engineered to treat breast cancer liver metastasis (BCLM), a condition with historically limited treatment options and high mortality rates.

Daniel Hommes, M.D., Ph.D., is Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at UT Southwestern.

“The UTSW Innovation Hub is dedicated to ensuring that our most promising scientific discoveries reach the patients who need them most,” said Daniel Hommes, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at UT Southwestern. “InterAct’s unique computational approach to metastasis, combined with our foundational research, creates a powerful synergy. We are proud to partner with a team that has shown such rapid clinical and operational progress.”

Isaac Chan, M.D., Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and of Molecular Biology at UT Southwestern. Dr. Chan is a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UTSW.

The agreement capitalizes on the cancer research of Isaac Chan, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and of Molecular Biology at UT Southwestern. Dr. Chan is a member of the Cellular Networks in Cancer Research Program in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UTSW.

InterAct’s momentum accelerated significantly in early 2026. The company was recently selected for the Charles River Incubator Program, a prestigious endorsement that provides the dedicated manufacturing scale necessary to advance IAT-S2 and InterAct’s broader pipeline toward clinical trials.

“This licensing agreement is a pivotal milestone for InterAct,” said Dan Hargrove, CEO of InterAct Therapeutics. “InterAct is at the forefront of cracking the biological code of how invasive cancer cells displace healthy host cells. By leveraging the pioneering work of Dr. Isaac Chan and the Chan Lab at UT Southwestern, we have developed a way to reverse this process. Yet our approach doesn’t just turn the host environment into a barrier against disease; it trains healthy host cells to become cancer killers.

Dan Hargrove is CEO of InterAct Therapeutics.

“We are deeply grateful to UT Southwestern, a powerhouse in cancer research, for its partnership in this mission and the significant support of the UTSW Innovation Hub. Following productive discussions with the Food and Drug Administration and our selection into the Charles River Incubator Program, we are moving with urgency toward clinical trials for our lead breast cancer liver metastasis indication, targeting a major unmet need with a first-in-class therapy.”

InterAct will present further details on its progress and the IAT-S2 program at the Charles River Laboratories (CRL) Cell & Gene Therapy Summit on March 25-26 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dr. Chan is a co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of InterAct Therapeutics.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center 

UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 24 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,300 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.

About InterAct Therapeutics Inc.

InterAct is a biotechnology company dedicated to treating cancer metastasis at its source. Through our proprietary InterAct Print™ platform, we identify the biological drivers of infiltration and engineer therapies to reprogram the host environment into a barrier against metastatic cancers while training host cells to become cancer killers. Our lead program, IAT-S2, is a first-in-class AAV8 gene therapy for breast cancer liver metastasis (BCLM). Beyond the liver, the InterAct Print™ framework is designed to target the most common metastatic sites, including the lung and brain, utilizing a diverse toolkit of AAV, mRNA, and siRNA modalities.

DALLAS – March 20, 2026 – On Friday morning, UT Southwestern Medical School’s Class of 2026 crowded inside the Bryan Williams, M.D. Student Center gymnasium for the time-honored tradition of National Match Day. At precisely 11 a.m., the soon-to-be graduates – along with thousands of other medical students nationwide – tore open the envelopes revealing where they will begin the next phase of their training as resident physicians.

In total, 239 UT Southwestern students matched with more than 80 residency programs across the U.S. Cheers erupted as the aspiring doctors discovered they would be heading to prestigious medical centers such as those at Duke, Johns Hopkins, and Stanford universities after graduating in May. Eighty-one students will continue their training at UTSW-affiliated programs, which rank among the top in the country.

U.S. News & World Report named UT Southwestern among its Best Medical Schools for 2024-2025 – Tier 1 (top 16) for research and Tier 2 (top 50) for primary care. UTSW has the largest graduate medical education training program in Texas, with more than 1,400 clinical residents completing their medical education with postgraduate specialty and subspecialty training.

“Match Day is a momentous milestone in every physician’s journey, and as an educator, it is immensely gratifying to stand beside our students as they prepare to take the next step toward their future,” said Angela Mihalic, M.D., Dean of Medical Students and Associate Dean for Student Affairs at UT Southwestern Medical School, Professor of Pediatrics, and a Distinguished Teaching Professor.

“We are confident that the time and effort they have invested here will lead them to achieve great things in this next phase of their medical training,” she said. “To answer the call of this vocation is no small thing, and I see the boundless potential in each and every one of these future physicians. I have no doubt that the values instilled in them at UT Southwestern will serve as a guiding light to treat their patients with competence and compassion.”

This year, the National Resident Matching Program matched more than 41,000 medical students to institutions across the country. Top specialty selections for UT Southwestern students include Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry.

“Growing up in East Texas, I viewed UT Southwestern as the pinnacle of cutting-edge medicine, a perception that was reinforced throughout my undergraduate education,” said Michael Pitonak, who hails from Tyler and will train in internal medicine at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina. “During that time, I came to understand why UT Southwestern holds this reputation.”

Today, this reflection is echoed by many others in the graduating class.

“I was first exposed to medicine through my dad, a physician, as I watched him save lives,” said Zuhair Hawa, who will train in neurosurgery at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania. “After gaining more experience at UT Southwestern, I discovered a deep appreciation for the direct interactions we have with patients each day. I enjoy learning their stories and making all patients feel safe and heard during their most vulnerable moments. As a physician, I aspire to comfort patients through these experiences and guide them toward healing.”

UTSW training opportunities, rankings, distinctions

UT Southwestern’s training facilities include William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital, ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 hospital in Dallas-Fort Worth for nine consecutive years; Parkland Memorial Hospital, one of the nation’s busiest public hospitals; and Children’s Medical Center Dallas, one of the largest children’s hospitals in the country and the only hospital in North Texas to be ranked in all pediatric specialties in U.S. News’ annual Best Children’s Hospitals report. UT Southwestern also houses a 49,000-square-foot Simulation Center – one of the largest of its kind.

UT Southwestern is nationally ranked by U.S. News in 12 specialties, the most of any in Texas: Cancer; Cardiology, Heart, and Vascular Surgery; Diabetes and Endocrinology; Ear, Nose, and Throat; Gastroenterology and Gastrointestinal Surgery; Geriatrics; Neurology and Neurosurgery; Obstetrics and Gynecology; Orthopedics; Pulmonology and Lung Surgery; Rehabilitation; and Urology. It is also rated “High Performing” in the great majority of evaluated conditions and procedures, from aortic valve surgery and hip fracture to back surgery (spinal fusion) and stroke care.

Other key distinctions

• UTSW’s Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center is the first and only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in North Texas – one of only 57 across the U.S.
• UTSW is designated as an Advanced Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and has a Level 4 Epilepsy Center, the highest possible rating awarded by the National Association of Epilepsy Centers.
• UTSW scientists currently lead more than 6,200 research projects, supported by more than $816 million in funding.
• The Perot Family Scholars Medical Scientist Training Program, one of only 56 M.D./Ph.D. training programs in the country supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), offers a dual degree to strengthen the advancement of laboratory discoveries into the clinical arena.
• UTSW is ranked No. 1 globally among health care institutions by Nature Index for publishing high-quality scientific research.
• UTSW was awarded Press Ganey’s 2025 Guardian of Excellence Award, which recognizes the top 5% of health care organizations in delivering patient experience.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center 

UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 24 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,300 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.

DALLAS – March 19, 2026 – A widely used fracture risk calculator may help guide surgical decisions to treat patients with an endocrine disorder called primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) that causes progressive bone loss, according to a study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers. The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, suggest the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) could be used to identify patients who may benefit from a parathyroidectomy to potentially prevent fractures.

“The study provides the first large-scale validation of FRAX in primary hyperparathyroidism and reframes fracture prevention as a quantifiable, risk-based outcome for surgical decision-making rather than relying solely on bone density thresholds,” said lead author Vivek Sant, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery at UT Southwestern.

Vivek Sant, M.D., is Assistant Professor of Surgery at UT Southwestern.

PHPT affects nearly 3 million Americans and occurs when the parathyroid glands produce an excess amount of hormones, raising blood calcium levels and weakening bones over time. The condition can increase the risk of fragility fractures, particularly in older adults and postmenopausal women. Although parathyroidectomy – surgery to remove the overactive parathyroid gland or glands – is the only curative treatment, determining who should undergo the procedure can be challenging. 

To investigate whether FRAX could help guide treatment decisions, UTSW researchers identified 59,194 adults ages 40 to 90 from a national database who were diagnosed with PHPT between 2000 and 2024. About one-quarter of patients underwent parathyroidectomy, while the remainder were treated without surgery.

In a retrospective analysis of the data, FRAX assigned a score to predict a patient’s risk of fractures. Researchers found FRAX performed reasonably well in identifying which patients with PHPT would benefit from parathyroidectomy, even when bone mineral density data were not available. Compared with nonsurgical management, parathyroidectomy was associated with lower fracture risk when patients’ FRAX scores reached relatively modest levels. 

Naim Maalouf, M.D., is Professor of Internal Medicine and Associate Director of the Charles and Jane Pak Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research at UT Southwestern. He holds The Frederic C. Bartter Professorship in Vitamin D Research and is a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The analysis also found that many patients who do not meet current guideline-based criteria for surgery may still exceed these risk thresholds. Among patients who did not meet traditional surgical criteria, 25% had FRAX hip fracture scores above the level associated with fracture reduction after surgery.

“These findings give clinicians a practical, widely available tool to personalize discussions about surgery, enabling more informed shared decision-making,” said senior author Naim Maalouf, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Associate Director of the Charles and Jane Pak Center for Mineral Metabolism and Clinical Research at UT Southwestern.

The study builds on previous work at UTSW examining fracture outcomes in patients with PHPT and adds new evidence supporting risk-based approaches to surgical care.

Other UTSW researchers who contributed to this study are Yaser ElNakieb, Ph.D., Senior Data Scientist; Justin Rousseau, M.D., M.M.Sc., Associate Professor of Neurology and in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and Deputy Chief Medical Informatics Officer for Neurosciences; Yu-Lun Liu, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health; and Craig Rubin, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Internal Medicine. 

Dr. Maalouf holds The Frederic C. Bartter Professorship in Vitamin D Research. He is a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The study was supported by the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons Foundation Paul LoGerfo Research Award and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health.

About UT Southwestern Medical Center 

UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 24 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,300 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.

DALLAS – March 11, 2026 – A growing number of U.S. adults consider electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) more harmful than conventional cigarettes, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers show in a study. The findings, published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, could have significant implications for public health policymakers, tobacco control strategies, and people who use either of these cigarette types.

David Gerber, M.D., is Professor of Internal Medicine and in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health and Co-Director of the Office of Education and Training in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

“The perception that e-cigarettes are more harmful than cigarettes has been linked to both a decreased willingness to use e-cigarettes for smoking cessation and an increased likelihood of switching from vaping to smoking. Understanding the ramifications of this perception change represents a critical consideration when developing cessation strategies,” said David Gerber, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health and Co-Director of the Office of Education and Training in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Gerber co-led the study with Cristina Thomas, M.D., Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Internal Medicine, and Alexander Wu, B.S., a medical student at UTSW and the study’s first author.

Cigarette smoking has declined significantly over the past few decades, from a historical peak in 1965 when 43% of U.S. adults reported smoking to about 12% in 2025, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, since e-cigarettes, or “vapes,” were introduced in the U.S. in 2006, their use has steadily grown: Nearly 7% of U.S. adults reported using these devices in 2025.

Cristina Thomas, M.D., is Assistant Professor of Dermatology and Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern.

According to physicians, e-cigarettes are generally thought to be less harmful than conventional cigarettes, which are known to cause cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, and several forms of cancer, Dr. Thomas explained. However, a growing awareness of e-cigarettes’ hazards – including exposure to high levels of addictive nicotine and toxic chemicals as well as a propensity to act as a gateway for conventional cigarette smoking – led the Food and Drug Administration to include e-cigarettes in its 2018 anti-smoking campaign aimed at youth called “The Real Cost.” A year later, an outbreak of e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) occurred, affecting the health of thousands of e-cigarette users.

To learn how these events may have affected public perception of e-cigarettes, Mr. Wu and his colleagues analyzed data from the Health Information Nation Trends Survey (HINTS) from 2012 to 2022. This cross-sectional, nationally representative survey sponsored by the National Cancer Institute collects a variety of health data each year.

Alexander Wu, B.S., is a medical student at UT Southwestern and the study’s first author.

Using answers from 20,771 survey respondents, the researchers found that the proportion perceiving e-cigarettes as more harmful than conventional cigarettes rose from nearly 3% in 2012 to more than 30% in 2022. Similarly, perceptions of e-cigarettes as less harmful decreased from nearly 51% in 2012 to about 17% in 2022. An analysis of data collected before and after “The Real Cost” campaign and the EVALI outbreak suggests that these events negatively affected public perceptions of e-cigarettes, Mr. Wu said.

“Understanding how events like this shape people’s beliefs is key to guiding public health policy and future tobacco control strategies,” Mr. Wu said.

Although e-cigarettes are not harmless, Dr. Gerber added, clinicians widely consider them a less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes. Research has shown that using e-cigarettes to help quit smoking increases the chances of success compared with other nicotine replacements such as patches, lozenges, and gum when combined with behavioral therapy. Negative public perceptions of e-cigarettes might steer people away from using them as a smoking cessation tool or encourage them to choose conventional cigarettes over e-cigarettes, a topic the team plans to explore in future research.

“Our findings show the need to strike a balance in public health messaging that discourages youths from using either product while also ensuring that adults who do smoke have access to accurate information about product risks and cessation options,” Dr. Thomas said.

Other UTSW researchers who contributed to this study are Sandi L. Pruitt, Ph.D., M.P.H., Professor in the O’Donnell School of Public Health and Associate Director of the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement in the Simmons Cancer Center; Chul Ahn, Ph.D., Professor in the O’Donnell School of Public Health and Director of the Biostatistics Shared Resource Core in the Simmons Cancer Center; David Balis M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine; John D. Minna, M.D., Director of the Hamon Center for Therapeutic Oncology Research, Professor of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology, and co-leader of the Experimental Therapeutics Research Program in the Simmons Cancer Center; and Sumin Son, B.A., and Matthew Lee, B.S., medical students.

Dr. Gerber holds the David Bruton, Jr. Professorship in Clinical Cancer Research.

This study was supported in part by the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center Biostatistics Shared Resource (5P30 CA142543).

Two dimers of STING (pink) are linked together by PtdIns(3,5)P₂ (carbon atoms in yellow and oxygen atoms in red) and cholesterol (carbon atoms in green and oxygen atoms in red), leading to clustering of STING and activation of innate immune signaling.

DALLAS – Feb. 24, 2026 – UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified two lipids that work together with a quintessential protein known as stimulator of interferon genes (STING) to launch an immune response in the human body. Their findings, detailed in two papers published concurrently in Nature, could lead to new ways to manipulate the immune system to fight infections, cancer, autoimmune disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases.

“These studies reveal additional levels of regulation of the cGAS-STING pathway, underscoring the importance of controlling the activity of this pathway so the body can mount an effective immune response against infections while avoiding autoimmune reactions to self-tissues. Dysregulation of this pathway has been shown to cause a variety of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases,” said Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Biology and Director of the Center for Inflammation Research at UT Southwestern.

Zhijian “James” Chen, Ph.D., is Professor of Molecular Biology, Director of the Center for Inflammation Research, and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. Dr. Chen holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science.

Dr. Chen, one of the world’s leading researchers on innate immunity, is a co-author on one study and senior author on the other. His discovery of cGAS, an enzyme that produces a molecule called cGAMP to activate STING, has been recognized with numerous top honors including the 2026 Japan Prize in Life Sciences, the 2024 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, and the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.

STING is a key part of the innate immune system, which provides broad and early protection against foreign invaders – such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites – as well as cancer. One trigger for innate immune activity is DNA found in the cytoplasm of cells. cGAS senses this DNA and produces cGAMP that binds to STING, which resides in a cellular organelle called the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) when it’s inactive.

After cGAMP binding, STING molecules are turned on, linking in a string (a process called oligomerization) and migrating to a different organelle called the Golgi. There, they activate additional molecules in a signaling cascade that prompts immune activity. STING’s oligomerization is necessary for this to occur.

Jay Xiaojun Tan, Ph.D., is a former postdoctoral fellow in the Chen Lab who is now an Assistant Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

How STING oligomerizes and why it needs to move from the ER to the Golgi have been unclear. To find additional molecules that play a role in STING regulation, a team led by Dr. Chen and Jay Xiaojun Tan, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral fellow in the Chen Lab who is now an Assistant Professor of Cell Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, analyzed which molecules interact with STING. One stood out: an enzyme known as PIKfyve, which produces a lipid called PtdIns(3,5)P₂.

When the researchers used a genetic technique to delete PIKfyve from cells, STING no longer moved from the ER to the Golgi or activated molecules in its immune signaling cascade. Subsequent experiments showed that mixing PtdIns(3,5)P₂ with STING enhanced STING activation by cGAMP. Further study showed that PtdIns(3,5)P₂ directly binds to STING. Together, these results suggest that PtdIns(3,5)P₂ works with cGAMP to activate STING.

Jie Li, Ph.D., is Instructor of Biophysics at UT Southwestern.

Concurrently, Jie Li, Ph.D., Instructor of Biophysics at UTSW under the supervision of Xiaochen Bai, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Biophysics and Cell Biology, and Xuewu Zhang, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology and Biophysics, also were looking for molecules necessary to activate STING. Previous studies had shown that phosphatidylinositol phosphates (PIPs), the chemical family that includes PtdIns(3,5)P₂, could play an important role in this process. Consequently, the researchers tested the effect of different PIPs on STING stimulated by cGAMP. Their experiments showed that PtdIns(3,5)P₂ was necessary for STING molecules to link in a string.

To better understand the role of PtdIns(3,5)P₂, the researchers used cryo-electron microscopy, which can visualize molecules at the atomic level. Their findings showed that PtdIns(3,5)P₂ binds to a groove between pairs of STING molecules, serving as a bridge that connects these pairs into a string. The researchers were surprised to also find cholesterol molecules in a place near where PtdIns(3,5)P₂ binds. Cholesterol appears to stabilize STING’s linear arrangement.

Xiaochen Bai, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Biophysics and Cell Biology and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. Dr. Bai is a Virginia Murchison Linthicum Scholar in Medical Research.

Besides demonstrating PtdIns(3,5)P₂’s key role in STING activation, these results also explain why STING must migrate from the ER to the Golgi to kick off its signaling cascade. While PtdIns(3,5)P₂ and cholesterol are present in limited amounts in the ER, concentrations of these molecules are much higher in the Golgi and Golgi-derived vesicles – a necessary factor for STING to assemble into long chains.

Collaborating as a group, the two teams tested the effects of mutating parts of STING that bind to PtdIns(3,5)P₂ and cholesterol. These mutant STING molecules no longer formed a chain or launched the signaling cascade, confirming that PtdIns(3,5)P₂ and cholesterol are necessary for these events.

These findings don’t just answer basic science questions, Dr. Zhang explained. Rather, knowing the molecules involved in STING activation and how they bind to STING can guide researchers in designing drugs that can help or hinder these processes. Encouraging STING activation could help patients fight off infections or cancer, while stifling it could treat autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. The researchers plan to continue studying how the cGAS-STING pathway works to reach these goals.

Xuewu Zhang, Ph.D., is Professor of Pharmacology and Biophysics and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. Dr. Zhang is a Virginia Murchison Linthicum Scholar in Medical Research.

Other UTSW researchers who contributed to the studies are Tuo Li, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology; and Fenghe Du, M.D., and Xiang Chen, M.D., Research Specialists in the Chen lab.

Dr. Zhijian Chen, a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine, is also an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science. Dr. Zhang and Dr. Bai are Virginia Murchison Linthicum Scholars in Medical Research. Drs. Zhijian Chen, Bai, and Zhang are members of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center.

These studies were funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01-AI093967, R01CA273595, and R01CA299257), The Welch Foundation (I-1389, I-1702, and I-1944), Cancer Grand Challenges (CGCFUL-2021/100007), Cancer Research UK, and the National Cancer Institute.

DALLAS – Feb. 18, 2026 – KRAS is the most frequently mutated oncogene across all human cancers. Although different KRAS mutations have long been thought to exert the same cancer-driving effects, a new study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers suggests that different KRAS mutation types can variously impact how cancer cells interact with immune cells, significantly affecting the malignant cells’ behavior. The findings, published in Science Translational Medicine, could lead to personalized therapies based on the KRAS mutation type.

Esra Akbay, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Pathology and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

“Rather than treating KRAS as a single entity, this study reframes the field by asking a more precise question: ‘Which KRAS mutation?’ We show that different mutation types create distinct tumor ecosystems that can have real effects on patient outcomes,” said study leader Esra Akbay, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pathology and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

Up to a third of patients with lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer, have KRAS mutations that are thought to be responsible for tumor development and growth. About 41% of this group has a mutation type known as G12C, while 17% have a different mutation type known as G12D. These mutations were often assumed to drive cancer in the same ways, encouraging cells to become malignant, proliferate, and survive. However, tumors with G12C tend to respond better than those with G12D to a class of cancer drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors. The reason for this discrepancy has not been fully understood.

To find out why, Dr. Akbay and her colleagues worked with mice carrying these mutations. Cancer in those with the G12D mutation developed and progressed significantly faster than in those with the G12C mutation. Mice with the G12D mutation also survived for a significantly shorter time. The researchers reviewed large databases of cancer patients and found a similar scenario: Those with the G12D mutation tended to be diagnosed earlier in life, suggesting their tumors grow more rapidly.

When the researchers looked more closely at the tumors, they saw that genes associated with inflammation and immune activity were more active in mice carrying the G12C mutation. These tumors harbored more immune cells, including lymphocytes and cytotoxic T cells known to fight cancer, and more PDL1, the molecule targeted by immune checkpoint inhibitors. They also produced more antigens, molecules that signal the immune system.

Next, the researchers tested the effects of drugs that target each mutation type. While all the mice initially responded to these therapies, those with the G12D mutation relapsed faster than those with the G12C mutation. However, when mice with the G12D mutation were treated with a G12D-targeting drug, their tumors showed increased antigen presentation and PDL1 production and contained more immune cells, similar to those observed in G12C tumors. When the researchers administered an immune checkpoint inhibitor in addition to the G12D-inhibiting drug, many of the mice had a complete response, meaning that their tumors were totally eradicated.

Together, Dr. Akbay said, these findings suggest that KRAS mutation type matters, affecting the cancer cell behavior and immune activity of these cancers in different ways. Knowing a patient’s specific KRAS mutation could lead to personalized treatment plans incorporating mutation-specific inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors that improve prognosis, she added.

Other UTSW researchers who contributed to this study are co-first authors Hai-Cheng Huang, Ph.D., doctoral student, and Qing Deng, Ph.D., postdoctoral researcher, both in the Akbay Lab; Luis De Las Casas, M.D., Professor of Pathology; Lin Xu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health and of Pediatrics; and Lei Guo, Ph.D., Computational Biologist.

Dr. Akbay is a member of Simmons Cancer Center’s Development and Cancer Research Program.

This study was funded by grants from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT Scholar Award RR160080), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (R01CA289500, R01CA276058), National Cancer Institute (NCI) UT Southwestern-MD Anderson Cancer Center Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) (5P50CA070907), the American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award (RSG-22-051-01-IBCD), the Forbeck Foundation, and the NCI Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA142543).

DALLAS – Feb. 10, 2026 – Certain chemotherapies are associated with an increased long-term risk of subsequent tumors in survivors of childhood cancer, according to a study led by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center. The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, could have important implications for the care of adults who had cancer as a child, particularly those treated for leukemia and brain tumors.

“This is the first large study that follows childhood cancer survivors into adulthood to demonstrate that specific chemotherapies – in addition to cranial radiation – independently increase the risk of single and multiple meningiomas, underscoring the need for lifelong monitoring as survivors age,” said lead author Daniel C. Bowers, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at UT Southwestern and Medical Director of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Children’s Health. Dr. Bowers also serves as Medical Director of the After the Cancer Experience (ACE) Program for childhood cancer survivors and is a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute.

Daniel C. Bowers, M.D., is Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at UT Southwestern and Medical Director of Pediatric Neuro-Oncology at Children’s Health. Dr. Bowers also serves as Medical Director of the After the Cancer Experience (ACE) Program for childhood cancer survivors.

The study analyzed data from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS), a National Cancer Institute-funded, multi-institutional cohort of 24,886 individuals diagnosed with cancer before age 21 between 1970 and 1999 who survived at least five years after diagnosis. Among these survivors, 471 were diagnosed with a total of 710 meningiomas decades after their original cancer treatment. Meningiomas are tumors that form in the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord, and most are benign and treatable. Thirty-five years after primary cancer diagnosis, survivors had a cumulative meningioma incidence of 2.3%, with risk continuing to rise across adulthood.

Cranial radiation therapy (CRT) has long been recognized as a major risk factor for the development of subsequent meningiomas. However, this study is the first to demonstrate that specific chemotherapy agents independently contribute to risk, even after accounting for radiation exposure.

“This study newly identifies platinum agents, antimetabolite chemotherapy, and intrathecal methotrexate as independent risk factors for subsequent meningiomas,” Dr. Bowers said.

In addition to chemotherapy exposure and CRT, the study identified females and patients who were first diagnosed with cancer at a younger age as being at particular risk. Nearly one-third of affected survivors developed multiple meningiomas, and long-term follow-up showed substantial mortality: Nearly 1 in 5 survivors diagnosed with meningioma died within 15 years, with meningioma itself the most common cause of death. These findings highlight the complex medical needs of long-term cancer survivors and reinforce the importance of early detection and specialized follow-up care.

Unlike meningiomas in the general population, which typically occur later in life, survivors in this study developed tumors decades earlier, underscoring the need for lifelong risk-based follow-up.

With these findings, the risk of subsequent meningiomas for childhood cancer survivors is still low overall and extremely low for those not exposed to cranial radiation. Only those adult patients who develop symptoms, such as headaches, weakness, or behavioral changes, should be considered for screening, researchers noted.

Dr. Bowers has previously led clinical studies examining morbidity and mortality among childhood cancer survivors with secondary meningiomas and has served as lead investigator in the development of screening guidelines through the International Late Effects of Childhood Cancer Guideline Harmonization Group.

The findings support efforts to refine long-term counseling, surveillance, and screening strategies for survivors at highest risk. The ACE Program through UT Southwestern and Children’s Health provides comprehensive, lifelong follow-up care for individuals treated for cancer during childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood.

“This study provides a clearer understanding of meningioma risk and long-term outcomes among childhood cancer survivors,” Dr. Bowers said. “It supports the development of more targeted counseling and screening recommendations for those at highest risk.”

This research was funded by grants from the National Cancer Institute (U24CA55727) and the National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA142543).

About UT Southwestern Medical Center

UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 24 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of more than 3,300 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.

DALLAS – Feb. 05, 2026 – Up to 20% of hormone receptor-positive breast cancers don’t respond to antiestrogen therapies. A study led by researchers at UT Southwestern, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, suggests that a protein secreted by immune cells within these tumors causes them to grow even in the absence of estrogen.

“Our findings on the role of the tumor immune microenvironment in endocrine resistance point to new therapeutic strategies to overcome resistance and improve outcomes for patients,” said Ariella Hanker, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern.

Ariella Hanker, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Hanker co-led the study with Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D., Director of the Simmons Cancer Center and Associate Dean of Oncology Programs, and first author Fabiana Napolitano, M.D., Ph.D., a former member of the Arteaga Lab.

Nearly 80% of breast cancers are hormone receptor-positive and thus rely on estrogen to multiply and survive. Treatment of these cancers is typically based on depriving them of estrogen through various means, such as drugs that inhibit estrogen production. Although these therapies have significantly increased breast cancer survival, a subset of hormone receptor-positive cancers don’t respond, often leading them to recur after other treatments, including surgery and radiation.

Why these hormone receptor-positive cancers resist antiestrogen therapies hasn’t been clear, Dr. Hanker explained. To answer this question, she and her colleagues looked at 173 tumor samples from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, UT Southwestern, and Parkland Health. They compared those that responded to estrogen-depriving (ED) treatment with those that had become resistant. The researchers found a significant increase in gene expression for various immune pathways in the resistant tumors. These findings suggest the presence of immune cells within the tumor, such as B cells and T cells, as well as an uptick in immune-related activity in the cancer cells themselves.

Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D., is Director of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Dean of Oncology Programs. He holds the Annette Simmons Distinguished University Chair in Breast Cancer Research.

Examining similar tissue samples collected before and after patients received ED therapy showed that the therapy itself appeared to spur these immune pathways, increasing the infiltration of activated immune cells into tumors – but only in the ED-resistant samples. This suggests that antiestrogen therapy might cause cells within the tumor to release a chemical signal summoning the immune cells to the cancer site.

Further experiments identified this signal as CXCL11, a protein secreted by immune cells that recruits T cells to fight tumors and infections. When the researchers cultured hormone receptor-positive breast cancer cells without estrogen – a state in which they typically grow poorly – they thrived with the addition of CXCL11. They found similar results when they co-cultured breast cancer cells with T cells.

“This study is a good bedside-to-bench example of how starting from tumors in patients treated with estrogen suppression can inform mechanistic discovery in the laboratory that, in turn, can inform new biology and treatment directions for patients with breast cancer,” Dr. Arteaga said.

Together, these results suggest that T cells within hormone receptor-positive, ED-resistant tumors are a double-edged sword. Although the CXCL11 they produce spurs cancer growth, it also summons T cells to the tumor site that could potentially serve as cancer fighters, Dr. Hanker explained. Hormone receptor-positive breast cancers have long been considered immunologically “cold,” meaning that immunotherapies aren’t effective because they lack active immune cells. While this is true for the ED-sensitive tumors, ED-resistant tumors appear to have significantly more T cells. Thus, they may be more responsive to immunotherapies, an idea Dr. Hanker and her colleagues plan to test in a future clinical trial.

“Eventually, doctors may use CXCL11 as a biomarker to signal which hormone receptor-positive breast cancers might respond to immunotherapies,” she said.

A complete list of authors from UTSW can be found in the study.

Dr. Arteaga holds the Annette Simmons Distinguished University Chair in Breast Cancer Research.

This study was funded by the National Cancer Institute (R01CA224899), the Department of Defense (BC210406), the National Cancer Institute Breast Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) (P50CA098131), the National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA142543), the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (RR170061), the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (SAB1800010), and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

DALLAS – Feb. 04, 2026 – An experimental pill called enlicitide slashed levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, commonly known as “bad” cholesterol, by up to 60%, a new phase three clinical trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine showed. If approved by the Food and Drug Administration, this novel medication could help millions in the U.S. significantly reduce their risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Ann Marie Navar, M.D., Ph.D., is a cardiologist and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

“Fewer than half of patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease currently reach LDL cholesterol goals. An oral therapy this effective has the potential to dramatically improve our ability to prevent heart attacks and strokes on a population level,” said Ann Marie Navar, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiologist and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Navar led the study, which was sponsored by the drugmaker Merck & Co. Inc.

Researchers have known for decades that LDL cholesterol causes cardiovascular disease. Cholesterol-containing particles deposit in blood vessel walls, a process called atherosclerosis, which can then cause heart attacks and strokes. Consequently, lowering LDL cholesterol is a cornerstone of preventing cardiovascular disease in people who do not yet have it and reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes in people who are already affected.

The development of enlicitide resulted directly from research conducted at UT Southwestern, Dr. Navar explained. Decades ago, Michael Brown, M.D., Professor of Molecular Genetics and Internal Medicine, and Joseph Goldstein, M.D., Chair and Professor of Molecular Genetics and Professor of Internal Medicine, discovered the LDL receptor on liver cells, which removes LDL cholesterol from the blood. This breakthrough not only earned the pair the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985 but also laid the groundwork for developing statins, the class of medications most commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol levels.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Subsequent research came through the Dallas Heart Study based at UTSW, led by Helen Hobbs, M.D., Professor in the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development and of Internal Medicine and Molecular Genetics, and Jonathan Cohen, Ph.D., Professor in the Center for Human Nutrition, the Eugene McDermott Center for Human Growth and Development, and of Internal Medicine. They found a group of people with lower levels of LDL cholesterol due to genetic changes that caused them to make less of the PCSK9 protein. PCSK9 reduces the number of LDL cholesterol receptors on liver cells, slowing the liver’s ability to clear LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream. This finding led to the development of injectable drugs that inhibit PCSK9, first in the form of monoclonal antibodies, and then as a small interfering RNA that inhibits the synthesis of the PCSK9 protein itself. The monoclonal antibodies, evolocumab and alirocumab, reduce circulating LDL cholesterol levels by about 60%.

Despite the efficacy of these drugs, Dr. Navar said, research by her group and others has shown that they are rarely prescribed. Early barriers to therapy included their high cost and insurance issues. Despite reductions in price and improvements in insurance coverage, the vast majority of primary care physicians and a substantial minority of cardiologists still don’t prescribe them, possibly because they are only available as injections, she hypothesized.

Enlicitide works in a similar fashion to the monoclonal antibodies, binding to PCSK9 in the bloodstream, but it is taken once a day orally in pill form.

In the new phase three clinical trial, researchers tested enlicitide’s ability to lower LDL cholesterol in 2,909 patients who either had established atherosclerosis or were considered at risk for developing it due to related conditions. Two-thirds of the patients received the study drug, while the other third received a placebo. Even though the vast majority of these volunteers were already taking a statin, their average LDL cholesterol level was 96 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl), far above the 70 mg/dl recommended for those with atherosclerosis and 55 mg/dl for those at risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

“The study population reflects what we see in clinical practice,” Dr. Navar said. “Even the highest intensity statins are often not enough to get people to their cholesterol goals.”

After 24 weeks, those taking enlicitide reduced their LDL cholesterol levels by about 60% compared with a placebo. Enlicitide also significantly reduced other blood lipid markers associated with cardiovascular disease, including non-HDL lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoprotein B, and lipoprotein(a). The results held steady over a yearlong follow-up period.

“These reductions in LDL cholesterol are the most we have ever achieved with an oral drug by far since the development of statins,” Dr. Navar said.

A separate clinical trial is already underway to study whether this decrease in LDL cholesterol translates into reductions in heart attacks and strokes.

Dr. Brown, a Regental Professor, holds the Paul J. Thomas Chair in Medicine and the W.A. (Monty) Moncrief Distinguished Chair in Cholesterol and Arteriosclerosis Research. Dr. Goldstein, a Regental Professor, holds the Julie and Louis A. Beecherl, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Research and the Paul J. Thomas Chair in Medicine. Dr. Hobbs holds the Dallas Heart Ball Chair in Cardiology Research and is a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Cohen holds the C. Vincent Prothro Distinguished Chair in Human Nutrition Research.

This study was funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme, a subsidiary of Merck.

Dr. Navar received consulting fees from Merck for part of the work on this study. She also received fees for other consulting work from Merck and from other pharmaceutical companies that make lipid-lowering drugs (as disclosed in the study).

DALLAS – Feb. 03, 2026 – Two UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a protein that plays a key role in controlling the liver’s release of cholesterol-carrying lipoproteins into the bloodstream, a discovery that could lead to new treatments for atherosclerotic heart disease and fatty liver disease.

The study, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, found that the protein, called HELZ2, regulates apolipoprotein B (APOB), a gene essential for the formation of apoB proteins and, ultimately, lipoproteins, the particles that transport cholesterol and fat through the blood.

“These particles are a major driver of plaque buildup in the arteries,” said senior author Zhao Zhang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in UT Southwestern’s Center for the Genetics of Host Defense and of Internal Medicine. “What we found is that HELZ2 acts as a powerful control point for how many cholesterol-carrying particles ultimately enter the bloodstream.”

The researchers found that HELZ2 shortens the lifespan of APOB messenger RNA (mRNA) – the molecule that carries instructions from genes to make proteins – inside liver cells. When HELZ2 activity increases, less apoB protein is made, which in turn reduces the number of cholesterol-carrying particles released into the blood.

Zhao Zhang, Ph.D., (left) Assistant Professor in UT Southwestern’s Center for the Genetics of Host Defense and of Internal Medicine, and Yiao Jiang, Ph.D., postdoctoral researcher in the Zhang Lab, collaborated on the study.

“Most previous research focused on what happens to apoB after it’s already made,” said Yiao Jiang, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Zhang Lab and study co-author. “What surprised us is that HELZ2 acts much earlier, by controlling how long the apoB ‘message’ survives before the protein is even produced.”

The team used a large-scale genetic screen originally developed by Nobel Laureate Bruce Beutler, M.D., Director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense and Professor of Immunology and Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern. Focusing on unusual levels of liver fat accumulation in mice, the scientists identified a gain-of-function mutation in HELZ2, which made it more active, reducing the stability of APOB mRNA within the liver.

Mice with this mutation produced fewer lipoproteins, including LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol and triglycerides, circulating in their blood. As a result, they were more protected from atherosclerosis, even though fat accumulated in their livers – a pattern that highlights the tradeoff between blood cholesterol levels and liver fat storage. Mice without the mutation showed the opposite pattern.

“We can think of HELZ2 as a kind of dial between the liver and the bloodstream,” Dr. Zhang said. “Turning it up lowers cholesterol in the blood but increases liver fat. Turning it down does the reverse. That balance makes HELZ2 especially interesting as a potential therapeutic target.” 

Statins are currently the drugs most commonly used to reduce cholesterol and lower the risk of heart disease. With further research, the investigators say, targeting HELZ2 could one day offer a different approach to reducing harmful lipoproteins. At the same time, carefully modulating HELZ2 activity could open new avenues for treating fatty liver disease.  

“The idea that we can control apoB at the RNA level represents a major shift in how we think about cholesterol regulation,” Dr. Zhang said. “It gives us a new molecular lever – and potentially a new set of tools – for tackling these conditions.”

Dr. Beutler, a Regental Professor, shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of an important family of receptors found on immune cells. He holds the Raymond and Ellen Willie Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research, in Honor of Laverne and Raymond Willie, Sr. Dr. Beutler is a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

This research was supported by funding from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (R00DK115766 and R01DK130959).

DALLAS – Jan. 22, 2026 – UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have discovered that increasing the levels of a protein called BACH2 makes engineered cancer-fighting immune cells behave more like stem cells, improving their therapeutic effectiveness. The findings, published in Nature Immunology, suggest new strategies for improving the efficacy of these immune cells, known as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells.

“Using a mouse model of solid cancer, we found that programming CAR T cells to acquire stem-like properties during manufacturing significantly enhances their antitumor activity. This fine-tuning of CAR T cells may represent a powerful strategy to overcome key barriers in solid tumor immunotherapy,” said Tuoqi Wu, Ph.D., who co-led the study with Chen Yao, Ph.D. Both researchers are Assistant Professors of Immunology and in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

Tuoqi Wu, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Immunology and in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

CAR T cells have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as an anticancer therapy since 2017. These cells are created by collecting a cancer patient’s own T cells, then genetically engineering them to fight that patient’s specific cancer. Although CAR T cells have shown enormous promise in fighting blood cancers, such as leukemias and lymphomas, they offer long-lasting remission in only a subset of cases. Additionally, CAR T cells are largely ineffective at fighting solid tumors.

This inefficacy mostly stems from a phenomenon known as exhaustion, Dr. Wu explained. Constant stimulation of CAR T cells by antigens on cancer cell surfaces eventually leaves them unable to fight cancer cells, proliferate, or respond to immune checkpoint-inhibiting drugs. They also show markers of a dysregulated metabolism and ultimately die. Understanding why exhaustion develops will be key to making CAR T cells a more effective therapy for all cancers.

Several years ago, Drs. Wu and Yao found an important clue in another study they performed examining T-cell exhaustion in chronic viral infections. There, T cells had a range of propensities to become exhausted. But those least likely to become exhausted had properties more akin to stem cells. Those with higher “stemness” produced more of a protein known as BACH2.

Chen Yao, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Immunology and in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

To see if the same was true in CAR T cells, the researchers developed these cells from mice. Much like in the previous study, cells with higher expression of the gene for BACH2 also maintained more stem-like qualities than those with lower expression. Cells with more BACH2 were also less likely to become exhausted and fought off leukemia better than those with less BACH2. The researchers found similar results when they looked at BACH2 expression in human CAR T-cell samples.

Capitalizing on these findings, the researchers generated mouse CAR T cells that produced varying levels of BACH2. CAR T cells that produced the highest levels of BACH2 remained the most stem-like and were the best at resisting exhaustion while growing in petri dishes. Using a different strategy, the researchers temporarily boosted the amount of BACH2 that CAR T cells produced during their manufacture, then infused them into a mouse model of neuroblastoma, a type of solid malignant tumor that develops in nerve cell precursors. This tweak significantly improved the cells’ cancer-controlling ability compared with typical CAR T cells, restricting the tumors’ growth.

Drs. Wu and Yao said their study suggests that increasing BACH2 production in CAR T cells could offer a viable technique to help them resist exhaustion and fight both blood and solid tumor cancers. They hope to eventually test this strategy in clinical trials.

Dr. Wu is an Investigator in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at UT Southwestern.

Other UTSW researchers who contributed to this study are first authors Taidou Hu, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher, Ziang Zhu, Ph.D., and Ying Luo, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher; Jonathan Hoar, M.S., and Sejal S. Shinde, M.S., research assistants; and Safuwra Wizzard, B.S., B.A., and Kiddist Yihunie, M.S., graduate student researchers.

This study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (AI158294, AG083398, AG056524, and AI154450); the Clinic and Laboratory Integration Program and the Lloyd J. Old STAR Program from the Cancer Research Institute; the V Scholar Award from the V Foundation; the Grant for Junior Faculty from the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR); the Hevolution/AFAR New Investigator Award in Aging Biology and Geroscience Research; the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (RR210035 and RP250282); the Department of Defense (HT94252310801); and a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Center Support Grant (P30CA142543).

DALLAS – Jan. 20, 2026 – Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a go-to tool in health care, helping clinicians such as radiologists make diagnoses and personalize care. But what do patients think about this?  

In a recent study, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers found that most patients support the use of AI to help interpret mammograms as long as radiologists provide oversight in the imaging analysis, though perceptions varied among patient populations. The study, published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, highlights the importance of clear, patient-centered communication as clinicians incorporate AI-based tools into mammography interpretation.

Basak Dogan, M.D., is Professor of Radiology, Director of Breast Imaging Research, and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. She is a Eugene P. Frenkel, M.D. Scholar in Clinical Medicine.

“This is the first study to measure patient perspectives on AI in mammography in different hospital settings,” said corresponding author Basak Dogan, M.D., Professor of Radiology, Director of Breast Imaging Research, and member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. “It reveals how demographic and socioeconomic factors shape acceptance, trust, and concerns about AI integration in breast cancer screening.”

The researchers surveyed 924 patients receiving mammograms at UT Southwestern’s William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital and Parkland Health, a public safety-net health system for the uninsured that serves as the primary teaching hospital for UTSW. Overall, 71.5% of participants supported the use of AI in mammogram interpretation, but only 6.6% supported AI as the sole reader. Nearly 60% said they would prefer to wait hours or even days for a radiologist’s interpretation rather than rely on immediate AI results, reinforcing the importance patients place on human oversight and provider-patient interaction.

Patient preferences were largely consistent across care settings. Although initial analyses showed lower approval of AI among individuals at Parkland Health, those differences disappeared after adjusting for demographic factors such as age, education, income, and race.

The survey also revealed strong expectations around transparency. Across both sites, 73.8% of participants indicated they would want to be informed or provide consent before AI is used to help read mammograms. Concerns about data privacy, bias, accuracy, transparency, and impacts on the doctor-patient relationship were common, with more than 80% of respondents reporting worry about at least one of these issues.

Among all participants, 84% wanted a radiologist to review an AI-identified abnormality, while only 44% wanted AI to review a radiologist-identified abnormality.

Non-Hispanic Black participants were less likely to accept AI and more likely to express privacy concerns, highlighting the need for culturally sensitive approaches as AI tools are introduced into clinical care, the researchers said. In addition, they stressed transparent communication and regulatory oversight as keys to helping build patient trust and acceptance of AI.

Emily Knippa, M.D., is Associate Professor of Radiology and a member of the Breast Imaging Division at UT Southwestern.

“As AI is increasingly used in breast imaging interpretation, attention should be paid to educate patients about the role of AI, obtain consent for its use, and provide safeguards to protect data privacy,” said study leader Emily Knippa, M.D., Associate Professor of Radiology and a member of the Breast Imaging Division.

AI was integrated into clinical mammography interpretation at UT Southwestern in early 2023, shortly before the study began. The technology is embedded directly within the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), where AI outputs appear alongside mammogram images during routine reads by radiologists. Patients receive general consent language indicating that AI may be used to assist radiologists in interpreting images.

“This was not an entirely new process for us, as we had previously used computer-aided detection (CADx) systems, which functioned in a similar way by overlaying prompts on the images,” Dr. Dogan said. “Because of that prior experience, the transition to AI was relatively seamless. 

“The key difference between CADx and AI is that CADx relied on rule-based algorithms that often produced a high number of false positives, whereas AI systems are trained on large datasets and use deep learning to provide more nuanced, case-specific outputs. This means AI can highlight suspicious regions with greater accuracy and consistency, reducing unnecessary callbacks and improving radiologist confidence,” she said.

The study builds on earlier research by Dr. Dogan’s team surveying patients on their views of integrating AI into mammography.

Other UTSW researchers who contributed to this study are co-first author Jenifer Chisom Ogu, M.D., UTSW Medical School graduate and UT Austin radiology resident interning at JPS Health Network in Fort Worth; co-first author B. Bersu Ozcan, M.D., Radiology research fellow; and Yin Xi, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Radiology.

Dr. Dogan is a Eugene P. Frenkel, M.D. Scholar in Clinical Medicine. The study was funded by her Eugene P. Frenkel, M.D., Scholar in Clinical Medicine Award from the Simmons Cancer Center.

DALLAS – Jan. 16, 2026 – A team at UT Southwestern Medical Center this week became the first in Texas and neighboring states to successfully perform a novel procedure to deliver whole-liver chemotherapy to treat metastatic uveal melanoma, a rare and deadly eye cancer.

Adrienne Shannon, M.D., is Assistant Professor of Surgery and a surgical oncologist at UT Southwestern.

Tumors spread to the liver in up to 90% of metastatic uveal melanoma cases. Approved for use in adult patients by the Food and Drug Administration in 2023, Hepzato Kit involves a percutaneous hepatic perfusion (PHP) delivery method utilizing a series of specialized balloon catheters and filtration units to isolate the liver blood flow and deliver high doses of the chemotherapy drug melphalan via the hepatic artery to the entire liver.

Adrienne Shannon, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery and a surgical oncologist at UT Southwestern, led the team during Thursday’s procedure to treat a 72-year-old man with multifocal hepatic tumors. Dr. Shannon previously participated in this procedure at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida, before she joined the faculty at UT Southwestern in 2025.

Hepzato is only available on a selective basis under a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS), and fewer than three dozen medical centers nationwide currently offer the therapy. Dr. Shannon worked with a highly trained team of UT Southwestern staff and fellow faculty members to deliver the therapy. They include interventional radiologists led by Sanjeeva Kalva, M.D., Patrick Sutphin, M.D., Ph.D., and Seung Kim, M.D., M.B.A.; anesthesiologists led by Steven Zheng, M.D.; and perfusionists. Dr. Kalva is a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

Sanjay Chandrasekaran, M.D., is Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and the physician lead for the Multi-Histology and Precision Oncology Program (MPOP) Disease Oriented Team in the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is a Eugene P. Frenkel, M.D. Scholar in Clinical Medicine.

“Hepzato is the only FDA-approved treatment that treats the whole organ and has been proved to shrink tumors, translating into more effective disease control and potential survival benefit,” said Sanjay Chandrasekaran, M.D., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and the physician lead for the Multi-Histology and Precision Oncology Program (MPOP) Disease Oriented Team in the Simmons Cancer Center. He is also a Eugene P. Frenkel, M.D. Scholar in Clinical Medicine.

Dr. Chandrasekaran’s practice focuses on treating patients with uveal melanoma, melanoma, and other skin cancers.

“Having the ability to offer Hepzato to our patients is so important. Treating this deadly disease is about creating opportunity – the opportunity for patients to have access to a wide scope of options, including systemic therapies, clinical trials, and liver-directed treatments,” said Dr. Chandrasekaran, who has received institutional funding to grow the uveal melanoma program at UT Southwestern.

Uveal melanoma is a rare cancer that develops in ocular cells that create melanin. It accounts for about 5% of U.S. melanoma cases. About 50% of uveal melanoma patients are at risk for metastatic disease, sometimes years after successful treatment of the primary eye tumor. 

Melphalan, a chemotherapy drug that targets tumor cells by binding to and cross-linking DNA strands and halting their replication, is infused directly into the liver’s main artery. The proprietary drug/device from Delcath Systems Inc. relies on veno-venous bypass and an extracorporeal filter system to effectively contain the drug within the liver and its blood vessels, allowing high doses to be delivered with limited systemic side effects.

A multicenter phase three study (the FOCUS trial) included 91 individuals who received Hepzato. It showed that 36.3% of patients experienced shrinkage of their tumors, including 7.7% who experienced a complete response or disappearance of liver lesions. The majority of tumor responses were seen after the first two cycles of therapy. The FOCUS study also found an overall survival rate of 80% after one year, and 65% of patients were progression-free at six months.

J. William Harbour, M.D., is Chair and Professor of Ophthalmology and a member of the Cellular Networks in Cancer Research Program of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. He holds the David Bruton, Jr. Chair in Ophthalmology.

During the treatment, an interventional radiologist uses fluoroscopic imaging to place a double-balloon catheter in the inferior vena cava, isolating the liver’s vasculature. After the patient is transitioned to veno-venous bypass, a high dose of melphalan is injected into the hepatic artery to perfuse the liver for 30 minutes. It is then diverted to a filtration system designed to extract the drug from the patient’s system before blood is returned to the patient’s circulating blood volume. Afterward, the patient is typically monitored for up to 24 hours for potential complications, such as bleeding risks or low blood counts. Most patients are able to resume their normal activities within 48 hours. The therapy can be repeated up to six times every six to eight weeks. 

“This approach will improve our patient’s progression-free survival, and it is a far more effective option for him than other liver-directed methods that only treat one segment of the liver at a time,” Dr. Shannon said.

After a detailed multidisciplinary review, this patient was determined to be an excellent candidate for Hepzato based on his physical fitness, adequate liver function, and tumor size with less than 50% of liver involvement by tumor. Through the MPOP clinical trials team, the Simmons Cancer Center is planning to offer Hepzato to select patients with metastatic breast and colorectal cancers in the near future.

“This achievement exemplifies the strength of UT Southwestern as a premier institution for interdisciplinary patient care, discovery-driven research, and the development of breakthrough therapies,” said J. William Harbour, M.D., Chair and Professor of Ophthalmology and a member of the Cellular Networks in Cancer Research Program of the Simmons Cancer Center. “It’s an exciting moment for our expanding ocular oncology program as we rapidly establish UT Southwestern as a national destination for patients with eye cancers.”

Dr. Harbour developed prognostic tests that are now standard of care for ocular melanoma and part of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines for prognostication and risk stratification for this cancer.

Dr. Harbour holds the David Bruton, Jr. Chair in Ophthalmology.

Drs. Shannon and Chandrasekaran receive financial compensation from Delcath Systems Inc.

Nonurgent inquiries related to uveal melanoma at UT Southwestern can be directed to uvealmelanoma@utsouthwestern.edu 

Hepzato is currently only available at select medical centers across the country under a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS). UT Southwestern is the first to offer this treatment in Texas and the surrounding region.

DALLAS – Jan. 15, 2026 – A team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers has uncovered a molecular pathway that links obesity to widespread inflammation, providing long-sought insight into why obesity increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, fatty liver disease, and certain cancers. The findings, published in Science, identify a molecular “switch” that triggers this inflammation and point to potential new therapeutic targets.

“It’s been known for a long time that obesity causes uncontrolled inflammation, but no one knew the mechanism behind it. Our study provides novel insights about why this inflammation occurs and how we might be able to stop it,” said Zhenyu Zhong, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Immunology and member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. Dr. Zhong co-led the study with Danhui Liu, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral researcher in the Zhong Lab.

Zhenyu Zhong, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Immunology and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

Nearly 900 million adults worldwide – about 1 in 8 – live with obesity, a condition defined by a body mass index of at least 30. Uncontrolled, low-grade inflammation is a hallmark of obesity, contributing to numerous chronic conditions.

Such “sterile” inflammation – occurring in the absence of bacterial or viral infection – is largely driven by an inflammasome known as NOD-like receptor pyrin domain-containing 3 (NLRP3), a multiprotein complex found in immune cells known as macrophages. NLRP3 converts molecules called inflammatory cytokines from immature versions to mature ones that stimulate inflammation when macrophages excrete them. But whether and how NLRP3 activity is influenced by obesity has been largely unknown.

To investigate this, Dr. Zhong and his colleagues compared macrophages isolated from lean and obese human volunteers, as well as from mice fed normal and high-fat diets. In both the macrophages from patients with obesity and mice fed a high-fat diet, NLRP3 was hyperactivated. The researchers also made a surprising observation: In both sets of cells, there was an abnormally large amount of DNA in mitochondria, organelles that serve as power generators in cells and have their own genetic material.

Much of this extra mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) was oxidized, a damaged form often produced when cells are under stress. When the researchers used a chemical that blocked the oxidized mitochondrial DNA from attaching to the NLRP3 inflammasome, its hyperactivity ceased.

To better understand why macrophages from obese patients overproduced the oxidized mitochondrial DNA, the researchers looked for clues in the cells’ cytoplasm. They found an excess of deoxynucleotides, the building blocks that make up DNA. Further investigation showed that an enzyme (SAMHD1) responsible for degrading extra nucleotides had been phosphorylated – a chemical modification that turned off this enzyme.

Deleting the gene for SAMHD1 in mice – and even zebrafish, a species that shares 70% of its genes with humans – prompted the same phenomenon. In these animals, the researchers found an excess of deoxynucleotides in the cytoplasm of macrophages, an increase in oxidized mitochondrial DNA, and hyperactive NLRP3 inflammasomes. These circumstances caused many of the mice to develop Type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease.

This work builds on Dr. Zhong’s previous study, published in Nature, that identified the mitochondrial enzyme CMPK2 as essential for mtDNA neosynthesis and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in healthy, lean humans and mice. The new findings reveal how obesity bypasses this pathway, rewiring nucleotide metabolism to sustain inflammation.

Dr. Zhong said the new findings suggest inflammation in obesity occurs through a molecular cascade kicked off by phosphorylation of SAMHD1. Learning why this phosphorylation happens will be a topic for future studies, he said. In the meantime, Dr. Zhong said, finding ways to remove this phosphorylation, prevent deoxynucleotides’ transport to mitochondria, or block the interaction between oxidized mitochondrial DNA and NLRP3 could reduce inflammation, and consequently, the occurrence of inflammation-related diseases in obesity.

A full list of contributors can be found in the published study.

This research was funded by grants from the Cancer Research and Prevention Institute of Texas (RR180014, RP230261, RP200197, and RP240183), the National Institutes of Health (R35GM142654, K22AI135074, R01DK133283, R01AI151708, R01AR075005, R35GM136316, and R35GM142689), and UT Southwestern Circle of Friends Awards.

DALLAS – Jan. 14, 2026 – The Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern earned an exemplary merit score from the Center for Scientific Review as part of the renewal of its comprehensive designation by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Simmons Cancer Center is one of 57 NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the U.S. and the only one in North Texas. The comprehensive designation highlights the center’s leading role in fighting cancer. It also marks the center’s inclusion in a nationwide infrastructure to advance cancer research and discovery and multidisciplinary patient care by integrating laboratory, clinical, and population-based research as well as cancer education and training, and community outreach and engagement.

Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D., is Director of the Simmons Cancer Center and Associate Dean of Oncology Programs at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

“We’re leading the way in cancer research, discovery, innovation, and multidisciplinary patient care as we strive to transform today’s scientific discoveries into tomorrow’s cures,” said Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D., Director of the Simmons Cancer Center and Associate Dean of Oncology Programs at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

The exceptional outcome of this highly rigorous review comes just months after UT Southwestern was ranked in the top 20 nationwide for cancer care by U.S. News and World Report for 2025-26.

Simmons Cancer Center is the NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center for UT Southwestern and two affiliated health systems, Parkland Health and Children’s Health. It operates regional locations in Fort Worth, Richardson/Plano, and RedBird in southern Dallas. Some specialized cancer care is also available in Frisco, with expanded services planned to launch in 2027.

“We are committed to improving the outcomes for cancer patients in North Texas and beyond,” said Jason Fleming, M.D., Deputy Director for Clinical Affairs of the Simmons Cancer Center and Professor of Surgery at UT Southwestern. “Receiving an exceptional rating from the National Cancer Institute underscores UT Southwestern’s unwavering drive for excellence and reaffirms our dedication to scientific discovery, compassionate care, and education.”

Jason Fleming, M.D., is Deputy Director for Clinical Affairs of the Simmons Cancer Center and Professor of Surgery at UT Southwestern.

Simmons Cancer Center has grown exponentially since its founding in 1991. It first became an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2015 and was redesignated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2021. In 2024, the center saw 10,319 new cancer cases, recorded 272,967 outpatient or treatment visits, and received over $120 million in cancer research-focused funding. During the last five years, the center performed nearly 80,000 cancer screenings in over 100 counties in Texas and almost 23,000 diagnostic procedures.

Its 288 scientists and clinical investigators are spread across 37 academic departments at UT Southwestern, an academic medical center known worldwide for its research, medical education, and clinical training.

Since 2020, Simmons Cancer Center members have published more than 3,600 cancer-relevant manuscripts, many of them in high-impact journals including Science, Cell, Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, and the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Simmons Cancer Center is home to NCI Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPOREs) in kidney cancer, lung cancer, and, most recently, liver cancer. The aim of these SPOREs is to translate basic science discoveries into better prevention and treatment strategies for patients who have those cancers or are at risk of them.

Through multidisciplinary disease-oriented teams, its clinical investigators and clinicians actively collaborate with five research programs in the center to provide cutting-edge precision therapies to each patient. Simmons Cancer Center also participates in more than 500 active clinical trials to deliver leading-edge care to patients. In 2024, the center enrolled a record number of almost 800 patients in therapeutic clinical trials.

“Patients coming to Simmons Cancer Center are not only going to receive excellent care but also have access to the latest innovations and clinical investigations that are going to give them a much better chance to be cured from cancer,” Dr. Arteaga said. “This is one of the big benefits of coming to a comprehensive cancer center designated by the National Cancer Institute.”

The center’s five research programs are Cellular Networks in Cancer, Chemistry and Cancer, Development and Cancer, Experimental Therapeutics, and Population Science and Cancer Control. They are designed to advance the understanding of cancer biology and translate that knowledge into novel approaches to prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer cases.

Dr. Arteaga holds the Annette Simmons Distinguished University Chair in Breast Cancer Research.

DALLAS – Dec. 29, 2025 – Scientists at Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have discovered a benefit of vitamin C deficiency: protection from a major parasitic disease. Their research suggests an explanation for the loss of the ability to synthesize vitamin C in some animals, including humans.

Michalis Agathocleous, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in CRI and of Pediatrics at UT Southwestern.

Ascorbate, better known as vitamin C, is not required by most animals because they can synthesize it using a gene called L-Gulonolactone Oxidase (GULO). But GULO was lost in humans and some other species as they evolved, making ascorbate a vitamin – a necessary nutrient that must come from diet. Most scientists view this as a neutral trait loss because there have been no known benefits to vitamin C deficiency.

New CRI research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences challenges this view by showing that losing the ability to synthesize vitamin C and becoming vitamin C deficient protects animals infected with schistosomes, a type of parasitic flatworm that needs vitamin C from its host to reproduce.

The research was conducted by the lab of Michalis Agathocleous, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in CRI and of Pediatrics, in collaboration with the labs of Jipeng Wang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, and James J. Collins, Ph.D., Professor of Pharmacology at UT Southwestern and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Vitamin C deficiency classically causes scurvy. Dr. Agathocleous discovered in 2017 that vitamin C deficiency promotes myeloid leukemia development, suggesting that the disadvantages of deficiency extend beyond scurvy into cancer development.

Other scientists have shown that vitamin C synthesis is an ancient metabolic pathway lost not only in some animals, but also in many parasites. Then in 2019, Drs. Wang and Collins discovered ascorbate was one of the vital elements necessary for schistosomes to lay eggs in a petri dish. 

Dr. Agathocleous said these discoveries led him to hypothesize that a host deficient in vitamin C could be protected from parasites that require vitamin C but cannot synthesize it.

Ji Hyung Jun, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Scientist in the Agathocleous Lab.

Ji Hyung Jun, Ph.D., Agathocleous Lab Senior Research Scientist, and CRI researchers studied normal mice, which can naturally synthesize ascorbate, compared with mice missing the Gulo gene. They found most normal mice infected with schistosomes died from schistosomiasis, but only 5% of mice without the Gulo gene died. Intermittent vitamin C intake reduced morbidity and mortality from schistosomiasis while preventing scurvy.

“Our work changed my view of vitamins. Vitamins have been studied for over a hundred years for their possible benefits, and vitamin deficiencies are, by definition, harmful,” Dr. Agathocleous said. “This research shows that having transient deficiency in a vitamin can be beneficial in an animal infected with a pathogen that requires the vitamin.”

Nearly 250 million people are affected with schistosomiasis, the disease caused when schistosomes penetrate human skin via contaminated water. Schistosomes live, sometimes for decades, in human blood vessels near the liver.

“We think the advantage of deficiency comes from the different timescales over which the worms need vitamin C versus the host,” Dr. Agathocleous said. “Worms lay eggs every day, whereas host disease due to deficiency takes months to develop. So, on balance, there is a benefit for an infected animal to be transiently deficient in vitamin C. 

“It is still possible that the loss of vitamin C synthesis was evolutionarily neutral, since we don’t have the tools to formally test for positive selection of GULO loss in ancient primates,” Dr. Agathocleous added. “But because schistosomiasis is so prevalent, and the survival benefit for infected animals is so strong, our results could explain why GULO was lost and ascorbate became a vitamin.”

Future Agathocleous Lab research will continue to investigate the role of vitamin C and effects of its deficiency in human diseases, including parasites and myeloid leukemia, a type of blood cancer that starts in the bone marrow and affects white blood cells. 

This research was funded by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), the American Society of Hematology, the Moody Foundation, The Welch Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, and the Fund of Fudan University and Cao’ejiang Basic Research.

Dr. Agathocleous is a CPRIT Scholar. He is also a member of the Cellular Networks in Cancer Research Program at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Collins holds the Jan and Bob Bullock Distinguished Chair for Science Education and the Jane and Bud Smith Distinguished Chair in Medicine and is a Rita C. and William P. Clements, Jr. Scholar in Biomedical Research.