THE CANCER PREVENTION AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF TEXAS awarded seven grants through its academic research program. The grants, totaling $23 million, support the recruitment of seven cancer scientists to academic institutions in Texas, including two distinguished senior researchers.
The awarded grants include the recruitment of first-time, tenure-track faculty members:
Charles Lin, recruitment to Baylor College of Medicine from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – $2,000,000
Leng Han, recruitment to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston from MD Anderson Cancer Center – $2,000,000
Jan Erzberger, recruitment to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from ETH Zurich (Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule) – $2,000,000
Kendra Frederick, recruitment to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research – $3,000,000
Peter Douglas, recruitment to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from the University of California, Berkeley – $2,000,000
The awards also include the recruitment of established investigators:
Frank McKeon, recruitment to the University of Houston from the Genome Institute of Singapore – $6,000,000
Yang-Xin Fu, recruitment to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center from the University of Chicago – $6,000,000
Additionally, members of the CPRIT Oversight Committee elected Pete Geren as presiding officer and Will Montgomery as vice presiding officer. Geren, who was vice presiding officer, replaces William Rice, whose term as presiding officer expired. Amy Mitchell was re-elected as secretary of the committee. Geren, Montgomery and Mitchell have been on the commitee since 2013.
Geren is the president of the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. From 2001 to 2009, he served in the U.S. Department of Defense as special assistant to the secretary of defense, acting secretary of the Air Force, undersecretary of the Army and secretary of the Army. He also served four terms in the House of Representatives and was formerly an assistant to Sen. Lloyd Bentsen.
Montgomery is a partner at the law firm Jackson Walker LLP, where his practice focuses on commercial litigation and arbitration.
Mitchell, a cancer survivor, works as an attorney in the real estate practice group of Fulbright & Jaworski’s Austin office. She has been included in Real Estate Law’s “The Best Lawyers in America” listing for the past six years and was named “Texas Top Rated Lawyer” by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell.
