2024
Annual Report
Fiscal Year 2024 Highlights
Building on the momentum launched by Texas voters 17 years ago and reauthorized by a decisive statewide vote in November 2019, CPRIT and its grantees have advanced innovative research and prevention efforts throughout the state. CPRIT and our grantees marked numerous milestones and achieved significant accomplishments in 2024, but as always, the beginning and end of our work at CPRIT rests in our grant awards.
On February 5, 2024, the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology (TAMEST) presented CPRIT with the Kay Bailey Hutchison Distinguished Service Award at their 2024 Annual Conference held in Austin. Wayne Roberts, CPRIT Chief Executive Officer, and Dr. Michelle Le Beau, CPRIT Chief Scientific Officer, accepted the award on behalf of the agency at the opening reception of the conference held at the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center.
In September 2024, CPRIT launched the CPRIT-Funded Core Facilities Interactive Map, a comprehensive online resource cataloging CPRIT-funded core facilities across the state of Texas.
Core facilities are centralized research hubs that provide scientific and clinical investigators access to shared resources, such as instruments, technologies, and services, as well as expert consultation and other support.
The 2024 Texas Cancer Plan is a statewide strategic plan to reduce the cancer burden across Texas and improve the lives of Texans. As the statewide call to action for cancer prevention, control, and research, the plan identifies the challenges and issues that affect Texas and presents a set of goals, objectives, and strategies to help inform and direct communities in the fight against cancer. The 2024 Texas Cancer Plan provides a coordinated, prioritized, and actionable framework that guides statewide and community efforts to mitigate the cancer burden.
CPRIT received a record number of applications for Product Development Research grants in fiscal year 2024. Companies submitted 142 preliminary applications, with 31 companies advancing to the full application review. Ultimately, CPRIT awarded 12 grants in FY 2024, investing $75 million in Texas-based companies working on new cancer drugs and treatments.
First Prevention Grant to Methodist Hospital Research Institute
The Methodist Hospital Research Institute is a landmark transitional research facility in the Texas Medical Center in Houston that takes a multi-disciplinary approach to medical innovation. Although the institute has received 37 CPRIT academic research awards since 2010 totaling nearly $67 million, the $1.44 million prevention award (PP240042) approved by CPRIT in February 2024 for the project “Cancer Prevention and Outreach for Individuals Disproportionately Affected by Cancer in Medically Underserved Regions (C-CUR)” is the Methodist Hospital Research Institute’s first CPRIT Prevention grant.
The C-CUR program, run by Nestor F. Esnaola, M.D., MPH, division head of surgical oncology and gastrointestinal surgery, and associate director, Cancer Control and Population Science at the Dr. Mary and Ron Neal Cancer Center, uses a community-partner model to address the significant need for more evidence-based cancer prevention and care in medically underserved areas in Texas. Low-income individuals residing in medically underserved areas suffer from significantly higher cancer incidence and mortality rates than the rest of the state.
Through a collaboration between Legacy Community Health (a Federally Qualified Health Center), Houston Methodist Neal Cancer Center, and Texas A&M Health Science Center, this initiative will improve screening and early detection, ultimately reducing deaths caused by breast, cervical, colorectal, and liver cancers, as well as the hepatitis C virus. By using well-established partnerships, C-CUR connects patients in medically underserved areas, including the Greater Fifth Ward Lyons, Santa Clara, and San Jacinto/Baytown, with cancer prevention services at three Legacy Community Health clinics. The Rose, an eight-time CPRIT Prevention grantee, also collaborates with the C-CUR project, extending breast cancer mobile screening services to all three Legacy locations.
CPRIT Co-hosts First Texas Life Sciences Summit in Austin
In April 2024, CPRIT joined the Texas Healthcare & Bioscience Institute (THBI), in partnership with Lyda Hill Philanthropies, to host the first Texas Life Sciences Summit in Austin. The summit, held at the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown, brought together industry professionals, academia, and state leaders to discuss industry accomplishments, initiatives to enhance the Texas workforce, and efforts to support the researchers and companies who are translating discoveries in the laboratory to innovations in the marketplace.
The Summit provided an opportunity to discuss the future of the life sciences industry, covering important topics such as the need to promote Texas more effectively by increasing awareness of the state’s strong life science ecosystem, and the imperative to help Texas-based companies find resources to assist with commercialization. CPRIT CEO Kristen Doyle participated in a panel discussion entitled “Surviving the Valley of Death.”
In addition to panel discussions throughout the day, there was a company expo, industry partnership meetings, and an industry networking reception. At the CPRIT booth, staff met with a number of companies and entities interested in partnering with CPRIT.
CPRIT Awards First Grant to Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio
In August 2024, the Texas Biomedical Research Institute received its first CPRIT grant, a $250,000 High Impact / High Risk Academic Research award (RP240605). The Texas Biomedical Research Institute, located in northwest San Antonio, is the only independent, privately-owned, nonprofit, infectious disease research institute in the United States.
Shouxiong Huang, Ph.D., and his team at Texas Biomedical Research Institute are working with mucosal-associated invariant T cells to trigger effective anticancer responses. T cells play a fundamental role in suppressing cancer progression, but using conventional T cells to treat cancer is challenging because they require specific genetic matches for each individual. Mucosal-associated invariant T cells, however, can kill cancer cells, such as leukemia and glioma cells, regardless of a genetic match. Dr. Huang’s team is developing strategies using cancer metabolites to stimulate mucosal-associated invariant T-cells and harness their cancer-fighting potential.
Established in 1940 by businessman, inventor, and engineer Thomas Baker Slick Jr., Texas Biomed advances human health through basic and translational research into the nature, causes, prevention, and eradication of infectious disease. The Institute’s worldwide partnerships deliver new diagnostics, treatments and cures through preclinical research and development programs.
Dr. Huang and his team are tackling key challenges in using MAIT cells to trigger effective anticancer responses, aiming to develop new strategies to harness their potential in fighting cancer.
CPRIT Funds First Decision Science Core Facility
The Oversight Committee approved an award for the first core facility in Texas that creates and provides decision support tools to empower patients to actively participate in their cancer treatment choices. The “Texas Decision Science Core Facility: A CPRIT Population Science Core” project at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is a new, innovative, collaborative, state-wide resource designed to help cancer patients make informed decisions about their care.
Texans face many tough choices when pursuing cancer treatment options. For example, young women diagnosed with cancer must decide whether and how to preserve their fertility before starting chemotherapy. Men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer must choose between careful monitoring or immediate treatment and risk complications related to sexual function and bladder control. After completing primary treatment for advanced ovarian cancer, women must decide about continuing chemotherapy without knowing if it will delay return of their cancer. People want to be involved in these very personal decisions about their care. Yet, many patients and their families feel unprepared to have these conversations with health care providers, and their doctors may not have the tools to help patients make hard choices.
Funded by the $3 million Core Facility Support Award (RP240508), Robert Volk, Ph.D., deputy chair in the Department of Health Services Research and professor in the Department of Health Services Research, leads the Texas Decision Science Core project. The core facility provides the tools, resources, and conversation guides - available in both English and Spanish - needed for understanding the risks and benefits of each treatment option and making informed choices. Through collaboration with the network of Texas institutions participating in The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston’s Clinical Translation Hub, the Decision Science core also supports and trains researchers across the state.
First Pediatric Facility in Nation in CPRIT-funded Reimbursement Program
Children’s Health in Dallas is the first pediatric facility in the nation to participate in a unique clinical trials reimbursement and outreach program. Founded in 1913, Children’s Health is one of the largest and most prestigious pediatric health care providers in the country. Through their academic affiliation with The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, they have become a leader in life-changing treatments, innovative technology, and ground-breaking research.
In 2021, UT Southwestern received a first-of-its-kind $1.5 million CPRIT Clinical Trials Participation Program Award (RP210115) to enhance access to and diversity in cancer clinical trials through a financial reimbursement and outreach program at the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center. Led by David Gerber, M.D., professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Hematology and Oncology at UT Southwestern, the reimbursement program reduces common barriers to pediatric clinical trial enrollment related to financial disparity and site access.
Available to all Texans, UT Southwestern runs the program at the three clinical sites of the Simmons Center: UT Southwestern Medical Center, Parkland Health and Hospital System, and Children’s Health. These facilities provide care for more than 8,000 cancer patients annually in one of the fastest growing, most diverse, and least insured areas in the country.
Led by Dr. Gerber, the reimbursement program helps to reduce common barriers to pediatric clinical trial enrollment related to financial disparity and site access. Eligible clinical trial participants and their families receive reimbursement for nonclinical costs, such as transportation, lodging, and food.
This year CPRIT bid farewell to one Chief Executive Officer and ushered in a new one by summer.
At the February 21, 2024, Oversight Committee meeting, longtime CPRIT Chief Executive Officer Wayne Roberts announced that he would step down from CPRIT effective July 1, 2024, ending his 50-year career serving the state of Texas.
State leaders recruited Mr. Roberts to serve as CPRIT interim executive director in late 2012 after a difficult period for the agency. With his extensive experience in state government and working with the Texas Legislature, Mr. Roberts brought a renewed focus to the agency, prioritizing increased transparency and procedural clarity while accomplishing the agency mission. In recognition of his exceptional work restoring trust in the agency, the Oversight Committee voted to hire Mr. Roberts as CPRIT’s first Chief Executive Officer in 2013.
Under Mr. Roberts’ leadership, CPRIT became the second largest public funder of cancer research in the nation, following only the National Cancer Institute. The agency is now a $6 billion, 20-year initiative to fight cancer and has awarded over $3.7 billion for research, prevention, and product development.
The Oversight Committee voted unanimously in May to hire former CPRIT Deputy Executive Officer and General Counsel Kristen Doyle as Chief Executive Officer beginning July 1, 2024.
"For over a decade, CPRIT has been blessed with the hard work and dedication of Wayne Roberts. His longstanding commitment to the cause of cancer will be felt for generations. Simply put, CPRIT would not be what it is today without the leadership of Wayne Roberts."
David Cummings, M.D.
Oversight Committee Presiding Officer
Addressing childhood cancer is a top priority for CPRIT, with 13% of our portfolio dedicated to pediatric cancer research. This is proportionately three times more than the national rate.
On November 10-11, 2024, CPRIT and the Carson Leslie Foundation co-hosted the Researchers Roundup in Dallas to gather the best minds in pediatric brain cancer research to collaborate, coordinate, and chart a path forward towards a cure.
The event kicked off with a reception and dinner at the Renaissance Marriott City View, where CPRIT CEO Kristen Doyle, Chief Scientific Officer Michelle Le Beau, Carson Leslie Foundation board member Neil Smiley, and chair of the CPRIT Advisory Committee on Childhood Cancer, Dr. Richard Gorelick, greeted attendees with opening remarks.
After dinner, attendees also heard from childhood and adolescent cancer survivors. Dr. Karen Albritton, Medical Director of the Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Program at Cook Children's Hospital, moderated a panel of survivors who shared their cancer journeys and the unique burdens and challenges they and their families faced. Their experiences provide a vital reminder of the importance of the fight against pediatric cancer.
The next day at Pegasus Park, presenters and attendees representing research institutions from across the state met to discuss topics related to childhood and AYA cancer and survivorship, including targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and the research opportunities presented through CPRIT-funded pediatric core facilities.
CPRIT also gained valuable input from panel discussions that will frame future childhood cancer funding opportunities. With direct input from the Researchers Roundup, CPRIT will create requests for applications that will align with the goals of the pediatric cancer community and push us closer to a cure.
The Researchers Roundup would not be possible without the Carson Leslie Foundation and co-founder Annette Leslie. The Lyda Hill Foundation, the Pegasus Park, the QuadW Foundation, and CPRIT’s Advisory Committee on Childhood Cancer also supported the Researchers Roundup.
CPRIT gained a new board member in July with the appointment of Dallas attorney Thomas "Tommy" Taylor. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick appointed Taylor to serve on the CPRIT Oversight Committee for a term that expires January 31, 2029.
Taylor has more than 47 years of experience representing companies in all facets of their business, including long range planning, contract negotiation, mergers and acquisitions, financing, state and federal regulations, alternative dispute resolution and litigation. He holds BBA, JD and LLM degrees, and is licensed in the State of Texas and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Taylor also has a long record of public service, including previous work with The University of Texas System Chancellor’s Council, the Baylor Scott & White Foundation, and the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at The University of Texas at Austin. Taylor and his wife established the Elizabeth Taylor Ovarian Cancer Research Fund at the Baylor Scott & White Foundation and the Anne M. and Thomas A. Taylor Family Endowment for cancer research at universities in The University of Texas System.
Taylor and his wife Anne live in Dallas. They have four adult children and two grandsons.
CPRIT prioritizes the greatest possible benefit for Texans when awarding grants. The agency supports academic research, product development, and prevention projects that show great scientific promise, meet critical needs, and advance the state’s life science ecosystem. CPRIT’s investments help grantees create centers of excellence, achieve scientific breakthroughs, reach clinical milestones, and detect cancers and cancer precursors earlier.
Over the last 15 years, CPRIT has invested $3.65 billion in Texas’ universities, enterprises, and organizations. CPRIT supports the cancer continuum from discovery to delivery, awarding more than 2,017 grants to academic research, product development, and prevention projects across Texas through August 31, 2024.
CPRIT’s $3.65 billion investment in 2,017 of the best ideas in cancer research, product development, and prevention enhances Texas’ role in the global fight against cancer. A snapshot of some notable research findings reported in fiscal year 2024, as well as other important milestones, awards and prestigious appointments, and prevention outreach, are shown below. Click on "View or Download All" to see the information reported for the fiscal year.