MD Anderson receives over $21.4 million in CPRIT funding to support research and launch new core facilities

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was awarded nine grants totaling over $21.4 million from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) in support of two new core facilities, faculty recruitment and groundbreaking cancer research across all areas of the institution.

“We are enormously appreciative of CPRIT’s support of impactful cancer research initiatives at MD Anderson. These new core facilities will help advance important areas of research in spatial biology and decision science, while the additional grants will advance groundbreaking work on the microbiome, cancer interception, and novel therapies. This work by our world-class scientists and clinicians reflects their unwavering commitment to our goal of ending cancer,” – said Peter WT Pisters, President of MD Anderson.

Two awards MD Anderson received on August 21st, totaling over $5.9 million, support the development of two core facilities at MD Anderson. The first ever Advanced Spatial Genomics Core facility, led by Nicholas Navin, Chair of Systems Biology, will focus on the new field of spatial genomics, which allows researchers to build an atlas of the human body by connecting images of cells and their tissue structures with genomic data while preserving their spatial arrangement. This core will connect the fields of pathology and cell biology with genomics, providing invaluable resources with the potential to dramatically improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and other diseases.

The Texas Decision Science Core facility, co-led by Robert Volk and Lisa Lowenstein, Professors of Health Services Research, is an innovative, collaborative, statewide resource for cancer researchers that combines the expertise and experience of MD Anderson’s Decision Support Lab with the network of Texas institutions participating in the UTHealth Houston Clinical Translation Hub of the UTHealth Houston Center for Clinical & Translational Sciences. The core will provide access to decision science expertise and the production of high-quality decision support tools to aid consumers, patients and clinicians in making decisions based on personal values and preferences.

Since its inception, CPRIT has awarded nearly $3.6 billion in grants for cancer research. MD Anderson investigators have received $645 million all told, approximately 18% of the total awards. Programs supported by CPRIT funding have brought more than 323 distinguished cancer researchers to Texas, advanced the knowledge base for cancer treatment throughout the state and provided more than 9 million cancer prevention and early detection services reaching all 254 counties in Texas.

CPRIT awards to MD Anderson include:

Individual Investigator Awards:

• Dietary intervention to modulate the microbiome and immune response (Jennifer McQuade, M.D., Melanoma Medical Oncology) – $1,074,727
• Precision lung cancer interception by targeting high-risk lung nodules (Jianjun Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., Thoracic-Head and Neck Medical Oncology) ­- $1,098,945

Core Facility Awards:

• Advanced Spatial Genomics Core facility (Nicholas Navin, Ph.D., Systems Biology) – $2,999,993
• The Texas Decision Science Core facility: A CPRIT population science core (Robert Volk, Ph.D., Health Services Research) – $2,995,778

High-Impact/High-Risk Research Awards:

• Engineering in vivo chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) macrophages for diffuse midline glioma (Wen Jiang, M.D., Ph.D., Radiation Oncology) – $250,000

Multi-investigator Awards:

• Innovative cell therapy approaches for hematological and solid malignancies (Sattva Neelapu, M.D., Lymphoma/Myeloma) – $4,500,000
• Novel therapies for osteosarcoma (Richard Gorlick, M.D., Pediatrics) – $4,498,684

CPRIT Scholar Recruitment Awards:

Recruitment of two first-time, tenure-track faculty – $4,000,000

About MD Anderson

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston ranks as one of the world’s most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education and prevention. The institution’s sole mission is to end cancer for patients and their families around the world, and, in 1971, it became one of the nation’s first National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer centers. MD Anderson is No. 1 for cancer in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” rankings and has been named one of the nation’s top two hospitals for cancer since the rankings began in 1990. MD Anderson receives a cancer center support grant from the NCI of the National Institutes of Health.

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