MD Anderson receives more than $19 million in CPRIT funding

Funds support research, core facility support, prevention and recruitment

MD Anderson News Release August 21, 2019

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today was awarded more than $19 million from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to support research, recruitment and prevention efforts. In total, MD Anderson received 14% of the $136 million in awards announced by CPRIT. 

MD Anderson awards included $1.1 million for individual investigator research and high-impact, high-risk research, $3.5 million for core facility support, $12 million for recruitment and $2.5 million for patient-centered liver cancer prevention in the Houston community. 

“MD Anderson is grateful for CPRIT’s support, which is so vital to serving our patients here in Texas and beyond,” said Peter WT Pisters, M.D., president of MD Anderson. “In particular, its recognition of the need for recruitment funding has allowed us – and will continue to allow us – to attract the very best experts in cancer care and research.”

Since its inception, CPRIT has awarded $2.4 billion in grants for cancer research, of which MD Anderson and its projects have received $466.6 million, or 19.5%. The agency began making awards in 2009 after Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a 2007 constitutional amendment committing $3 billion to the fight against cancer. Programs made possible with CPRIT funding have reached Texans from all 254 counties of the state, brought more than 181 distinguished researchers to Texas, advanced scientific and clinical knowledge, and provided more than 5.7 million life-saving education, training, prevention and early detection services to Texans. 

CPRIT awards to MD Anderson include:

Individual Investigator Research Award:

  • Regulation of CD8 T-cell responses in anti-tumor immunity (Shao-Cong Sun, Ph.D., Immunology) – $900,000

High-Impact High-Risk Award:

  • Epithelial memory of resolved inflammation as a driver of pancreatic cancer progression (Andrea Viale, M.D., Genomic Medicine) – $199,804

Collaborative Action Program to Reduce Liver Cancer Mortality in Texas: Collaborative Action Center Award:

  • Patient-centered liver cancer prevention in the Houston community (Jessica Hwang, M.D., General Internal Medicine) – $2,456,676

Core Facility Support Award:

  • Recombinant antibody production core (RAPC) atScience Park (Kevin McBride, Ph.D., Epigenetics & Molecular Carcinogenesis) – $3,505,385

Recruitment of Established Investigator Award:

  • Christopher Flowers, M.D. from Emory University School of Medicine – $6,000,000

Recruitment of First-Time Tenure Track Award:

  • Recruitment of three experts in Radiation Oncology, Genomic Medicine and Dermatology – $6,000,000

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