Vision
At the Center for Inherited Oncogenesis (CIO), we see a future where our genetic information permeates all aspects of healthcare, bringing truly personalized medicine across all life stages. We see a future where expanding access to individualized cancer risk profiles reveals life-saving opportunities to prevent tumors from occurring. We see a future where understanding cancer risk in South Texas fuels the development of interventions that mitigate these risks
The CIO at UT Health San Antonio is a hub for groundbreaking research focused on identifying genetic risk variants for cancer across diverse populations in our local community and globally. Researchers at the CIO are asking how these genes impact cancer risk, and in collaboration with world leading investigators the CIO is making ground-breaking discoveries into the structure and function of commonly mutated cancer risk genes, like BRCA1 and BRCA2, to find novel approaches to screening, diagnosis, prevention & treatment of a multitude of cancers.
Mission
The mission of the CIO is to investigate the genetic and biological basis of inherited cancer syndromes to identify clinical strategies to screen for, diagnose, prevent and treat inherited cancers in South Texas and populations more globally. The CIO also expects to provide educational opportunities for graduate students, postdoctoral scientists and interns at UT San Antonio. Ultimately, the CIO plans to translate research discoveries into innovative clinical approaches that save lives.
From basic science to clinical trials, research in the CIO will focus on the genetic epidemiology of multiple cancer types in Southern Texas, particularly genes and genetic syndromes involved with mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 pathways and other DNA repair components; the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the initiation and early-stage development of cancers caused by inherited mutations; and clinical strategies that can improve screening, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cancers caused by the inheritance of susceptibility gene mutations.
The CIO’s mission will be attained by:
- Building collaboration between new and established investigators at UTHSA
- Creating a research infrastructure to support genomics and population genetics
- Enhancing trainee development
- Assisting in the recruitment of new faculty with an outstanding track record of research
