AUSTIN – February is National Cancer Prevention month, and nine of the projects awarded today will help Texans prevent and reduce their risk of cancer. These projects will provide education and screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer, the hepatitis virus, as well as vaccinations for HPV and support for cancer survivors. To date, CPRIT’s 172 prevention programs have delivered over three million services all across Texas.

The CPRIT Scholars recruitment grants, totaling $22 million, include three to recruit established cancer scientists and two to bring first-time, tenure-track faculty members to academic institutions in Texas.

CPRIT has awarded 1,123 grants totaling more than $1.78 billion. The agency began making awards in 2009 after Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a 2007 constitutional amendment committing $3 billion to the fight against cancer.

“With these new awards, CPRIT continues to push Texas into the forefront of cancer research and prevention,” said Wayne Roberts, CPRIT chief executive officer. “CPRIT helps bring the best and brightest researchers in the world to Texas, while continuing to invest in promising programs with our partners.”

See attached for a list of all 14 academic research and prevention grants awarded.

About the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
To date, CPRIT has awarded $1.78 billion in grants to Texas researchers, institutions and organizations. CPRIT provides funding through its academic research, prevention, and product development research programs. Programs made possible with CPRIT funding have reached all 254 counties of the state, brought more than 123 distinguished researchers to Texas, advanced scientific and clinical knowledge, and provided more than three million life-saving education, training, prevention and early detection services to Texans. Learn more at cprit.texas.gov. Follow CPRIT at twitter.com/CPRITTexas and facebook.com/CPRITTexas.

AWARDED RESEARCH GRANTS

Recruitment of Established Investigators Awards** — Three grants totaling $18,000,000

  • Pier Giuseppe Pelicci, MD, PhD, Recruitment to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan, University of Milanv – $6,000,000
  • Gerard Evan, PhD, Recruitment to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from University of Cambridge & Cambridge Cancer Center – $6,000,000
  • Yair Reisner, PhD, Recruitment to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel – $6,000,000

Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Members Awards** — Two grants totaling $4,000,000

  • Ram Madabhushi, PhD, Recruitment to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – $2,000,000
  • Han Xiao, PhD, Recruitment to Rice University from The Scripps Research Institute – $2,000,000

AWARDED PREVENTION GRANTS

Competitive Continuation/Expansion Awards — Five grants totaling $7,486,073

  • Baylor College of Medicine, Expansion and Continuation of Web-Based Clinical Decision Support to Disseminate Tailored Screening Recommendations for Survivors of Pediatric Cancer (David G. Poplack) – $1,500,000
  • Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso, DE Casa 2: Cervical Cancer Prevention in El Paso and West Texas (Navkiran K. Shokar) – $1,499,993
  • The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Active Living After Cancer: Combining a Physical Activity Program with Survivor Navigation (Karen M. Basen-Enquist) – $1,494,530
  • University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth, Building Bridges: Cancer Prevention Education and Screening for Refugees (Amy L. Raines-Milenkov) – $1,491,550
  • Mental Health Mental Retardation of Tarrant County, Nicotine Recovery Program (NRP) (Gina Hollis) – $1,500,000

Evidence-Based Cancer Prevention Services Awards — Three grants totaling $4,238,623

  • The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Using Social Marketing and Mobile School-Based Vaccination Clinics to Increase HPV Vaccination Uptake in High-Risk Geographic Areas (Paula Cuccaro) – $1,499,969
  • The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Cervical Cancer Screening and Patient Navigation (X-SPAN) (Keith E. Argenbright) – $1,499,816
  • University Health System, University Health System Hepatitis Viral Infection and Systematic Treatment Program (HepVISTA) (Roberto Villarreal) – $1,238,838

Dissemination of CPRIT-Funded Cancer Control Interventions Awards — One grant totaling $300,000

  • Texas A&M University, Disseminating Evidence-Based Cancer Genomics Training to Community Health Workers (Lei-Shih Chen) – $300,000

**Recruitment grants awarded indicate only approval to negotiate offers; at the time of release candidates have not accepted offers.

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