CPRIT awards nearly $8M for research infrastructure
Mays Cancer Center Annual Report
The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) announced two awards totaling nearly $8 million to support research infrastructure at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Two core research facilities at UT Health San Antonio’s Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute will be expanded.
A $3.9 million CPRIT award enhances the Cancer Genome Sequencing and Computation Core directed by Yidong Chen, PhD, professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences and investigator with the Greehey Institute.
“This funding is an extension of a previous CPRIT award,” Chen said. “CPRIT’s generous, continuing support will enable our facility to move beyond lab research discoveries into translational clinical research. We will acquire additional equipment to propel these efforts.”
Investigators established the core facility through a $3.6 million CPRIT award in 2016.
Another $3.9 million CPRIT award supports the Texas Pediatric Cancer Testing Core in the Greehey Institute. The principal investigator is Peter Houghton, PhD, professor in the health science center’s Department of Molecular Medicine and former director of the Greehey Institute.
Since 2010, CPRIT has awarded $138 million to the health science center’s cancer research and prevention initiatives. The new awards have the potential to help adults with cancer as well.
The Greehey Institute is one example of multiple streams of care and research in cancer that contribute to the overall mission of the Mays Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institutedesignated Cancer Center.
“The leadership and contributions of Dr. Peter Houghton as our former institute director and Dr. Yidong Chen as our lead computational biologist have helped render the Greehey Institute a center of excellence in pediatric cancer research in the state of Texas and nationally,” said Patrick Sung, DPhil, director of the Greehey Institute.
