MD Anderson receives nearly $19.4 million in CPRIT funding

HOUSTON ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today was awarded 15 grants totaling $19.38 million from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) in support of cancer research projects across the institution.

“We are grateful for CPRIT’s invaluable support of MD Anderson’s mission to end cancer,” said Peter Pisters, M.D., president of MD Anderson. “The funds awarded today will strengthen the ability of our world-leading team of dedicated scientists and clinicians to test new hypotheses, drive scientific discoveries and generate breakthroughs that can improve the lives of cancer patients.”

Since its inception, CPRIT has awarded more than $3 billion in grants for cancer research. MD Anderson investigators have received $587 million, approximately 20% of the total awards. Programs supported by CPRIT funding have brought more than 288 distinguished cancer researchers to Texas, advanced the knowledge base for cancer treatment throughout the state and provided more than 8.2 million cancer prevention and early detection services reaching all 254 counties in Texas.

CPRIT awards to MD Anderson include:

Individual Investigator Research Awards:

• Neuronal alterations in the midbrain dopaminergic system function: a novel mechanism of radiation-induced cognitive dysfunction (Die Zhang, Ph.D., Radiation Oncology) – $1,399,730
• Geospatial approaches to melanoma early detection – The GAMED Project (Kelly Nelson, M.D., Dermatology) – $1,998,196
• A novel therapeutic strategy targeting pancreatic cancer (Wantong Yao, M.D., Ph.D., Translational Molecular Pathology) – $1,049,854
• Studying and therapeutically targeting ferroptosis liability in BRCA1 deficient cancer (Boyi Gan, Ph.D., Experimental Radiation Oncology) – $1,050,000
• Targeting the Mlc1-GlialCAM protein complex in invasive glioma cells (Joseph McCarty, Ph.D., Neurosurgery) – $1,050,000
• Blocking DNA damage response induction of “don’t eat me” signals converts local radiotherapy into systemic immunotherapy (Michael Curran, Ph.D., Immunology) – $1,049,905
• Normalizing membrane homeostasis in microglia/macrophages of pediatric high-grade gliomas (Jian Hu, Ph.D., Cancer Biology) – $1,400,000
• Overcoming therapy resistance by integrated computational modeling of the bone metastatic niche in prostate and renal cancers (Eleonora Dondossola, Ph.D., Genitourinary Medical Oncology) – $1,025,623
• Integrative modeling of spatially resolved multi-omics data to identify bladder cancer mucosal field effects (Peng Wei, Ph.D., Biostatistics) – $1,199,994
• Multi-component interventions to improve uptake and adherence to lung cancer screening (Robert Volk, Ph.D., Health Services Research) – $1,988,211
• Enhancing immune responses in pancreatic cancer by stromal inhibition of HIF2 (Cullen Taniguchi, M.D., Ph.D., GI Radiation Oncology) – $1,049,997
• A novel combination therapeutic approach to revitalizing immunotherapy for bone metastatic prostate cancer (Sue-Hwa Lin, Ph.D., Translational Molecular Pathology) – $1,050,000
• Targeting distinct metabolic vulnerabilities of aggressive renal cell carcinoma variants (Niki Zacharias Millward, Ph.D., Urology) – $1,019,997
• Mapping the geospatial tumor clonal architecture to restore immune recognition in pancreatic cancer (Andrea Viale, M.D., Genomic Medicine) – $1,049,985

Scholar Recruitment Awards:

• Recruitment of one first-time, tenure-track faculty member – $2,000,000

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