AUSTIN – The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) today awarded 14 new grants totaling more than $50 million towards advancing the fight against cancer. All 14 grants were made through CPRIT’s academic research program, including ten CPRIT Scholars recruitment grants and four Core Facility Support Awards.

To date, CPRIT has awarded 1,070 grants totaling more than $1.67 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 build Texas’ cancer research capabilities through the recruitment of some of the top minds in cancer research,” said Wayne Roberts, CPRIT chief executive officer, “as well as continuing core research facilities that are shared by researchers to advance science to benefit Texans.”

The CPRIT Scholars recruitment grants, totaling $34 million, include three for the recruitment of established cancer scientists, one Rising Star and six to bring first-time, tenure-track faculty members to academic institutions in Texas. The four Core Facilities Support Awards, totaling just over $16 million, will help establish or enhance research facilities to bolster scientifically meritorious cancer research projects.

About the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
To date, CPRIT has awarded $1.67 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 110 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

Core Facility Support Awards – Four grants totaling $16,062,539
  • Baylor College of Medicine
    • Proteomics and Metabolomics Core Facility (Dean Edwards) – $5,000,000
  • Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
    • North Texas Clinical Pharmacology Cancer Core (Richard Leff) – $2,499,900
  • The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
    • The University of Texas MD Anderson Science Park Next-Generation Sequencing Facility (Jianjun Shen) – $5,000,000
  • Scott and White Healthcare
    • Investigational New Drug Production Core Facility at Scott & White Cancer Research Institute (Jung Woo) – $3,562,639
Recruitment of Established Investigators** – Three grants totaling $18,000,000
  • Baylor College of Medicine
    • Michael Clarke, MD, Recruitment to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from Stanford University – $6,000,000
    • Guo-Min Li, Ph.D., Recruitment to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine – $6,000,000
    • Gail Eckhardt, MD, Recruitment to The University of Texas at Austin from the University of Colorado, Denver – $6,000,000
Recruitment of Rising Stars** – One grant totaling $4,000,000
  • Robert Jenq, MD, Recruitment to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from Memorial Sloan Kettering – $4,000,000
Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Members** – Six grants totaling $12,000,000
  • Xiao-chen Bai, Ph.D., Recruitment to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from Medical Research Council – $2,000,000
  • David Taylor, Ph.D., Recruitment to The University of Texas at Austin from the University of California, Berkeley – $2,000,000
  • Esra Akbay, Ph.D., Recruitment to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School – $2,000,000
  • Wenbo Li, Ph.D., Recruitment to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston from the University of California, San Diego – $2,000,000
  • Xin Ye, Ph.D., Recruitment to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research – $2,000,000
  • Han Xu, Ph.D., Recruitment to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from the Broad Institute – $2,000,000

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

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