The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) is sending nine awards to North Texas for cancer research, prevention, and product development. The nine awards represent around $25 million of the $114 million the organization distributed statewide.
“Today’s investments demonstrate CPRIT’s continued commitment to cancer research and the unparalleled growth of the cancer-fighting ecosystem across Texas,” said Wayne Roberts, CPRIT Chief Executive Officer via release. “At the same time, these awards translate directly to job creation and continuity in our state.”
Several UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers received awards for their work or were recruited from other universities to continue their studies here. Onconano, the Southlake startup that received $15.4 million from CPRIT last year, was awarded $9,965,273 in a Texas Company Product Development Award for its work fighting cervical, head, and neck cancers caused by HPV.
The awards included grants that helped recruit scientists from other universities to Texas institutions, including several who ended up at UT Southwestern. The awards given to first-time tenure track professors who were recruited to UT Southwestern include:
- Jin Chen, PhD from the University of California, Berkeley – $2,000,000
- Joshua Gruber from Stanford University – $2,000,000
- Andrew Sandstrom from the University of California, Berkeley – $2,000,000
- Xing Zeng from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School – $2,000,000
Several UT Southwestern researchers were given awards for their work in cancer research as well, including:
- Amit Singal – $2,499,995
- Keith Argenbright – $1,999,996
- Kathryn O’Donnell – $900,000
- David Hsieh) – $1,499,998
You can see the full list of recipients here.
