AUSTIN — The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) today awarded 49 new academic research grants and eight prevention grants totaling more than $73.5 million towards advancing the fight against cancer.
“CPRIT enlarges Texas’ critical mass of research and adds to our world class research teams at the state’s institutions,” said Wayne Roberts, CPRIT Chief Executive Officer. “CPRIT grants support novel evidence-based prevention screening for lung cancer — the leading cause of cancer deaths in Texas.”
CPRIT has awarded 1,247 grants totaling more than $1.95 billion. CPRIT is now past the two-thirds mark in the state’s historical 2007 constitutional commitment of $3 billion to fight cancer. During the 85th Texas Legislature, CPRIT’s Sunset Review date was extended by two years to 2023 to allow the agency to use fully all funds approved by Texas voters.
See the attached list for all 57 academic research and prevention grants awarded.
About the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
To date, CPRIT has awarded $1.95 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 150 distinguished researchers to Texas, advanced scientific and clinical knowledge, and provided more than 4 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
Individual Investigator Awards — Twenty-six grants totaling $23,147,620
Baylor College of Medicine
- Novel Small Molecule Probes Targeting Histone Acetyltransferase p300/CBP (Yongcheng Song) — $900,000
Rice University
- Prevalence of Rare Passenger Mutations in Biopsy Tissue as Cancer Stratification Markers (David Zhang) — $900,000
Texas Tech University
- Structural and Functional Characterization of the DNA Double Strand Break Processing Complex of Mre11-Rad50 (Michael Latham) — $850,876
The University of Texas at Austin
- Development of an engineered & pharmacologically optimized human methionine-gamma-lyase drug candidate for the treatment of prostate cancer and glioblastoma (Everett Stone) — $900,000
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
- Mechanisms and Treatment of Hippocampal Cognitive Impairment Associated with Androgen Deprivation Therapy for Prostate Cancer (David Morilak) — $899,547
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Hippo signaling in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and it progression to hepatocellular carcinoma (Randy Johnson) — $821,669
- Inhibiting Oxidative Phosphorylation: A Novel Strategy in Leukemia (Marina Konopleva) — $900,000
- PTEN Promotes Diabetic breast cancer metastasis (Chunru Lin) — $900,000
- A somatic mutant p53 mouse model of metastatic triple negative breast cancer (Guillermina Lozano) — $900,000
- Targeting the prion protein Doppel in brain tumor angiogenesis (Joseph McCarty) — $900,000
- Mucosal vaccine formulations for targeted therapy of HPV cancers (Jagannadha Sastry) — $883,146
- Functional analyses of linkage-specific ubiquitination in the DNA damage response (Bin Wang) — $900,000
- Targeting neutrophil elastase as a novel therapy for metastatic breast cancer (Stephanie Watowich) — $900,000
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- Dissecting the interplay between BAP1 and PBRM1 in renal cancer (James Brugarolas) — $897,633
- Therapeutics Targeting Cancer-Associated HPV Replication (Cheng-Ming Chiang) — $900,000
- Mechanisms of Nuclear Export in Cancer (Yuh Min Chook) — $900,000
- Turn ON the Tumor Contrast in Lymph Node Metastases for Occult Disease Detection (Jinming Gao) — $885,684
- Tumor Activated Enzyme Inhibitors for the Treatment of Cancer (Joseph Ready) — $898,776
- Imaging glucose stimulated zinc secretion (GSZS) from the prostate by MRI: A potentially powerful method for early detection of prostate cancer (Dean Sherry) — $900,000
- Imaging of biochemical alterations in human breast malignancy using CEST-MRI (Elena Vinogradov) — $900,000
- A Novel Dual Suppressor of Cancer Bone Metastasis (Yihong Wan) — $898,672
- Elucidating the Epigenetic and Metabolic Vulnerabilities of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (Jian Xu) — $900,000
- Innate Immune Regulation of Cancer Cell Proliferation (Nan Yan) — $900,000
- Fasting-induced inhibition of leukemia development (Chengcheng Zhang) — $900,000
- Determining the role of polyploidization in liver cancer development (Hao Zhu) — $900,000
University of Houston
- Targeting Stromal ERalpha for Cervical Cancer Therapy (Sang-Hyuk Chung) — $811,617
Individual Investigator Awards for Cancer in Children and Adolescents — Nine grants totaling $10,095,112
Baylor College of Medicine
- Microwafers as Novel Drug or Gene Delivery Vehicles for Noninvasive Treatment of Retinoblastoma (Richard Hurwitz) — $1,195,721
Texas A&M University System Health Science Center
- DNA methylation signatures of cell-free DNA in CSF as a new response biomarker for pediatric medulloblastoma (Deqiang Sun) — $1,200,000
The Methodist Hospital Research Institute
- Targeting the metastatic sarcoma niche using leukocyte biomimetic nanoparticles (Ennio Tasciotti) — $1,199,617
The University of Texas at Austin
- Myeloid support of refractory and aggressive T-ALL at distinct tumor sites (Lauren Ehrlich) — $1,200,000
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Molecular mechanisms of anthracycline response in cardiomyocytes and link to genetic susceptibility to cardiotoxicity in long-term childhood cancer survivors (Michelle Hildebrandt) — $1,194,520
- Compound heterozygous mutations in pediatric cancer predisposition (Katharina Schlacher) — $556,763
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- Understanding metabolic regulation of pediatric glioma through mouse modeling and patient tumor interrogation in vivo (Robert Bachoo) — $1,200,000
- Understanding TFE3-mediated Tumorigenesis through Analysis of a Novel, Clinically-Relevant Mouse Model of Translocation Renal Cell Carcinoma (James Brugarolas) — $1,155,128
- Rhabdomyosarcoma vulnerabilities: Prioritizing and extending to the clinic (Stephen Skapek) — $1,193,363
Individual Investigator Awards for Computational Biology — One grant totaling $898,997
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Characterizing cancer genome instability and translational impact using new sequencing technologies (Ken Chen) — $898,997
Individual Investigator Awards for Clinical Translation — Five grants totaling $9,456,989
The University of Texas at Austin
- Mass Spectrometry Imaging to Uncover Predictive Metabolic Markers of Ovarian Cancer Surgical Outcome and Treatment Response (Livia Schiavinato Eberlin) — $1,092,048
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- EXTernal beam radiation to Eliminate Nominal metastatic Disease (EXTEND): A randomized phase II basket trial to assess local control of oligometastatic disease (Chad Tang) — $2,394,412
- Clinical trials of C188-9, an oral inhibitor of signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3, in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (David Tweardy) — $2,399,905
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- Noninvasive detection of anthracycline induced cardiotoxicity using hyperpolarized carbon 13 based magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (Vlad Zaha) — $2,397,204
University of Houston
- Integrated single-cell biomarkers of T-cell efficacy (Navin Varadarajan) — $1,173,420
Individual Investigator Awards for Prevention and Early Detection — Three grants totaling $2,596,479
Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
- Novel Computer Aided Diagnosis System For Early Detection Of Oral Cancer Based On Quantitative Autofluorescence Imaging (Javier Jo) — $897,394
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Blood-based biomarkers for the early detection of pancreatic cancer (Ann Killary) — $900,000
- Circulating Exosomes as Biomarkers for Lung Cancer Early Detection (Ayumu Taguchi) — $799,085
Recruitment of Rising Stars Awards* — Two grants totaling $8,000,000
- Yujin Hoshida, MD, PhD, Recruitment to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai — $4,000,000
- Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD, Recruitment to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston from the University of California, San Diego — $4,000,000
Recruitment of First-Time, Tenure-Track Faculty Members Awards* — Three grants totaling $6,000,000
- Rohit Bose, MD, PhD, Recruitment to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center — $2,000,000
- Wen Jiang, MD, PhD, Recruitment to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center — $2,000,000
- Zhenyu Zhong, PhD, Recruitment to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from the University of California, San Diego — $2,000,000
*Recruitment grants awarded indicate only approval to negotiate offers; at the time of release candidates have not accepted offers.
AWARDED PREVENTION GRANTS
Tobacco Control and Lung Cancer Screening Awards — Two grants totaling $2,972,915
Baylor College of Medicine
- Equitable Access to Lung Cancer Screening and Smoking Cessation Treatment: A Comprehensive Primary Care and Community Health Approach (Roger Zoorob) — $1,472,918
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- Lung Cancer Screening and Patient Navigation (LSPAN) (Keith Argenbright) — $1,499,997
Colorectal Cancer Prevention Coalition Awards — One grant totaling $4,034,507
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
- Alliance for Colorectal Cancer Testing 2.0 (ACT 2.0) (Lewis Foxhall) — $4,034,507
Evidence-Based Cancer Prevention Services Awards — Four grants totaling $5,798,580
Texas A&M University System Health Science Center
- Advancing an Established Colorectal Cancer Prevention Program for Rural and Underserved Texans through A&M's Family Medicine Residency (David McClellan) — $1,499,202
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
- Get FIT to Stay Fit. Stepping Up to Fight Colorectal Cancer in the Panhandle. (Izi Obokhare) — $1,498,476
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center at El Paso
- BEST 2: Breast Cancer Education Screening and Navigation (BEST)Program for El Paso and West Texas (Navkiran Shokar) — $1,499,908
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- Evidence-Based Hepatocellular Cancer Prevention through Targeted Hepatitis C Screening and Navigation (Mamta Jain) — $1,300,994
Dissemination of CPRIT-Funded Cancer Control Interventions Awards — One grant totaling $299,571
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- Disseminating Cancer Control Framework and Strategies, a UT System Partnership (Keith Argenbright) — $299,571
To read more about these and other CPRIT grants, please visit our updated Funded Grants page.