Senior officials from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) visited Rice University Nov. 11 for a firsthand, comprehensive look at the university’s cancer-focused collaborative research initiatives and innovation-driven facilities and labs.
The visit underscored Rice’s expanding role in addressing critical needs in cancer research and innovation and highlighted the impact of CPRIT-funded initiatives at the university, including the recruitment of 24 leading researchers.
As a Texas university with a 10-year strategic commitment to lead innovations in health, Rice is a prime ally for CPRIT ⎯ the second-largest public funder of cancer research in the U.S., second only to the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and one of the top 10 public funders of cancer research in the world. With a $6 billion investment portfolio across its three main programs, CPRIT fosters a unique life sciences ecosystem in the state, contributing to Texas’ economic growth while taking decisive and impactful action in the fight against cancer.
CPRIT’s Heidi McConnell, deputy executive officer, and Abria Magee, senior program manager for product development research, began their tour at the Texas Medical Center’s Helix Park Life Sciences Complex, where Omid Veiseh, a Rice professor of bioengineering and CPRIT Scholar, led a presentation on the Rice Biotech Launch Pad, which was established in 2023 to help bridge the transition from discoveries in the lab to treatments available in the clinic, and RBL LLC, a Houston-based company incubator launched this year that evolved from the Rice Biotech Launch Pad.
Veiseh, who serves as faculty director for the Rice Biotech Launch Pad and managing partner for RBL LLC, explained that the vision behind both entities is to provide the infrastructure and support needed to drive clinical advancements and reduce the timeline for delivering solutions to patients ⎯ a goal that is well aligned with that of CPRIT’s Product Development Research Program, one of three major programs run by the agency, along with the Academic Research and Prevention programs.
“Our product development awards focus on advancing discoveries into devices, diagnostics and treatments that can be directly applied in clinical settings,” Magee said, emphasizing CPRIT’s distinct mission compared to national institutes like the NCI. She explained that the agency provides significant funding with awards ranging up to $20 million to help Texas-based companies bring therapies to patients.
Another unique trait of the agency is its contribution to research on childhood and adolescent cancers, which represents a significant component of CPRIT’s funding portfolio, said McConnell.
“Texas has become a leader in childhood and adolescent cancer research,” McConnell said, noting that CPRIT has dedicated 13% of its funding portfolio to this “orphan disease” ⎯ referred to as such due to the fact that the incidence of childhood cancers is lower than in other segments of the population, causing them to be understudied despite a 27% increase in childhood cancer rates in the U.S. since 1975.
“CPRIT invests about three times more in childhood and adolescent cancer research than the national commitment,” McConnell said.
The officials then heard from Gang Bao, Rice’s Foyt Family Professor of Bioengineering, and Dr. Jeffrey Molldrem, chair of hematopoietic biology and malignancy at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Their joint presentation highlighted how Rice’s proximity to the TMC is a valuable asset that encourages research collaboration — Bao and Molldrem lead the Cancer Bioengineering Collaborative, an initiative dedicated to fostering collaboration between the two institutions on fundamental and translational cancer research. The Cancer Bioengineering Collaborative is the first of two new initiatives between Rice and MD Anderson launched in the past year with the second being the Center for Operations Research in Cancer, a partnership with MD Anderson’s Institute for Data Science in Oncology co-led by Rice’s Andrew Schaefer and MD Anderson’s Jeffrey Siewerdsen.
Following Bao and Molldrem, Anna-Karin Gustavsson gave Magee and McConnell an overview of the Center for Nanoscale Imaging Sciences launched last spring. Gustavsson, who leads the new center, described how a better understanding of nanoscale cellular structures and dynamics can enable new insights on cancer and provide valuable means to streamline clinical tasks such as tumor sample analysis. Gustavsson is an assistant professor of chemistry at Rice and a CPRIT Scholar.
The visit continued at the Bioscience Research Collaborative, where McConnell and Magee toured the Genetic Design and Engineering Center, a site of interdisciplinary expertise spanning synthetic biology, cancer therapy and engineering that facilitates high-impact research at scale by providing high-throughput DNA design, construction and sequencing. Next, the officials heard from Michael King, the E.D. Butcher Professor of Bioengineering and CPRIT Scholar who serves as special adviser to the provost on life science collaborations with the TMC, and toured several labs led by CPRIT-supported researchers at Rice.
McConnell praised Rice’s efforts to recruit top researchers, noting that CPRIT’s support has enabled the university to attract national leaders in cancer research. The first CPRIT Award to Rice was instrumental in bringing three star scientists — all members of the National Academy of Sciences — to the Lone Star State from the University of California at San Diego. This initial success, followed by several others over the last few years, highlights the critical impact of state funding on maintaining a competitive research landscape.
“Our recruitment grants have funded over 300 recruits statewide and really transformed Texas’ capacity for cutting-edge cancer research,” McConnell said.
The final stop was the Ralph S. O’Connor Building for Engineering and Science, where Rice President Reginald DesRoches and Amy Dittmar, the Howard R. Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, introduced the university’s strategic plan for the next decade to an audience of community partners ranging from representatives of local education and TMC institutions to state- and city-elected officials.
“Rice’s willingness to bring everyone to the table and forge partnerships is an important factor of its success,” Magee said.