$3 Billion State Ballot Proposition to Decide Fate of Texas Cancer Research Funding Agency
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
On 5 November, Texas residents will decide whether to sustain CPRIT[*], the second largest public source of cancer funding in the United States after the federal government. At stake is its generous support for 123 tenure-track faculty like [Francesca] Cole, who investigates cancer and DNA repair. Most scientists use fruit flies or zebra fish, but she could afford to build a large team that probes DNA repair using more sophisticated-and expensive-animal models: 25 different genetically modified mice strains. "The CPRIT investment made a huge difference to my research success," says Cole, who has since won a prestigious New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health.
Texas residents appear likely to approve the ballot initiative, which would give CPRIT another $3 billion through bond sales; a recent poll found that two-thirds of voters support it. Yet some dissent remains from fiscal conservatives. State Senator Charles Schwertner (R) told the Austin American-Statesman in January that although CPRIT's goals are "unquestionably noble," funding cancer research is not a role for state government. He introduced a bill to have CPRIT become a self-sufficient agency, but it failed to advance.
[...] After a smooth first few years, a scandal broke out in 2012 over a $18 million incubator award to MD Anderson that had not undergone scientific peer review. That, along with concerns that politics was skewing grant decisions, prompted CPRIT's chief scientific officer, Nobel laureate and biochemist Alfred Gilman, to resign in protest, along with most of its scientific council and many grant reviewers. After more problems led to a 10-month hold on new grants and a governance overhaul, the agency got back on track.
CPRIT has awarded more than $2.4 billion for 1447 awards split among clinical and translational research, recruitment, basic research, training, and prevention. It has supported shared resources such as bioinformatics facilities and advanced microscopes. The agency touts its practical impact, saying 36 cancer companies have used its money to launch, grow, or move to the state. They, in turn, have raised more than $3 billion from investors. A recent analysis commissioned by CPRIT concluded that the money it pumps into the economy generates $1.4 billion in annual economic activity and supports 10,000 jobs. And one "immediate" result of CPRIT's $250 million in prevention grants has been cancer screening and other services for 320,000 Texans a year, Willson says.
doi:10.1126/science.aaz8812
[*] CPRIT: Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas
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