NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center said yesterday that it has received a renewal grant of $48.6 million from the National Cancer Institute to fund its comprehensive cancer center for five years.
The Comprehensive Cancer Center Support Grant will provide $9.7 million annually to MD Anderson, which uses the funding to support a range of cancer genomics, proteomics, and other research and resources across the institution.
In total, the grant funds 19 research programs and 16 shared resources. These include four programs focused on cancer genetics and epigenetics, metastasis, cell biology, and immunology; nine disease site programs covering all major cancers; three population-based research programs; and three thematic clinical and translational research programs focused on targeted therapies, radiation oncology, physics and biology, and stem cell transplantation and cell therapy.
The NCI grant also provides support for a number of shared resources for DNA sequencing, microarray analysis, functional proteomics, and a biospecimen and tissue pathology resource.
MD Anderson said that over the five years since the last NCI cancer center grant was renewed, the institution led clinical trials contributing to 22 cancer drugs being approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, published more than 12,000 papers in journals, received $120 million in additional research grant funding from NCI, and boosted its annual research budget from $450 million to $624 million.