| Grant ID | RR200084 |
| Awarded On | August 19, 2020 |
| Title | Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Members |
| Program | CPRIT Scholar |
| Award Mechanism | Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Members |
| Institution/Organization | The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center |
| Principal Investigator/Program Director | Xing Zeng |
| Cancer Sites | Brain and Other Nervous System |
| Contracted Amount | $2,000,000 |
| Summary of Goals and Objectives |
Patients with high-grade glioma or brain-metastasized melanoma are difficult to treat and have dismal prognoses. Neurons promote tumor progression via secreting growth factors and forming synapses with tumor cells. Whether and how tumor cells actively communicate with neurons to promote axonal infiltration into tumor masses and synaptogenesis remains to be studied. S100b is a gene that is highly and selectively expressed in glioma and melanoma. Based on my previous research showing that S100b acts as an adipocyte-derived neurotrophic factor by promoting sympathetic nerve innervation of brown adipose tissue, I hypothesize that tumor-deri... |