The American Cancer Society released the following statement recently; "In 2023, 1,958,310 new cancer cases and 609,820 cancer deaths are projected to occur in the United States." Texas is doing a lot in that life-saving fight, The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) outlining some of their priorities this week. Here is their press release:
CPRIT awards more than $73 million to Texas institutions and companies in the fight against cancer
Grants recruit researchers to Texas and foster development of new drugs and treatments
(AUSTIN) The governing board of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) advanced the fight against cancer by approving over $73 million in new cancer research grants at its quarterly meeting on Wednesday.
The board approved $60 million in crucial, early-stage investments in Texas-based companies developing breakthrough cancer-fighting drugs and treatments, including one company relocating from Seattle to Houston. The Oversight Committee also approved several new CPRIT scholar awards to recruit world-class cancer investigators from across the country to Texas institutions.
“CPRIT funding is vital to cancer-fighting efforts across Texas,” said CPRIT Chief Executive Officer Wayne Roberts, “but today’s grants will be particularly critical to six companies doing breakthrough work on cancer-fighting drugs and treatments. Texas is unique because of CPRIT’s ability to invest in cutting edge research when private capital is scarce. This is yet another way Texas is leading the nation in the fight against cancer.”
Product Development Research Investment
The Oversight Committee awarded six grants through the CPRIT Product Development Research program to accelerate early-stage development in Texas-based startups conducting the preliminary work needed to bring life-saving drugs and technologies to market.
OncoResponse, a Seattle-based company relocating to Houston, received a $13 million grant to develop fully human monoclonal antibodies as therapeutics for the treatment of cancer in patients who otherwise would not respond to immunotherapy. The company already has a strong partnership with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The Oversight Committee approved a $9 million grant to the Cell Therapy Manufacturing Center (CTMC) to accelerate cell therapy development. CTMC is a Houston-based joint venture between National Resilience Inc. and MD Anderson Cancer Center focused on building capacity and differentiated capabilities for retroviral vector manufacturing, tumor infiltrating lymphocyte platform improvement, and CAR-T process development strategy.
The complete list of Product Development grants is provided below.
Recruitment
The Oversight Committee also approved three new recruitment grants totaling $14 million in the ongoing effort to bring the best and brightest cancer researchers to Texas from around the country. The CPRIT Scholars program has awarded $854 million since 2009 to bring 293 stellar cancer investigators to Texas.
Today, CPRIT awarded a $6 million grant to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas to bring Yuan Zhu, Ph.D. to Texas from Washington D.C. Dr. Zhu is an international leader in the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying nervous system tumor development, particularly for cancers associated with Neurofibromatosis Type 1, a relatively common cancer in children and adults. Dr. Zhu will be leaving his position as Scientific Director of the Gilbert Family Neurofibromatosis Institute at Children’s National Medical Center to become a professor of Pediatrics at the Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern.
Both the University Advisory Committee and the Product Development Advisory Committee also made their annual presentations to the board.
Following is the video of the meeting.
photo: Getty Images