$18M Grant to Be Re-reviewed

A Texas cancer institute is taking a second look at the largest grant it ever awarded after concerns were raised that the proposal never received proper scientific review.

Written byJef Akst

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Lung cancer cell with irregular bulges in the plasma membrane (purple)FLICKR, WELLCOME IMAGES

In March, the taxpayer-funded Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) awarded a team of researchers at the Institute for Applied Cancer Science (IACS) at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston $18 million to develop new cancer drugs. Last month, the institute’s chief scientific officer, Nobel laureate Alfred Gilman resigned, noting concerns about how the proposal for the large grant—the largest ever awarded by the institute, according to Nature—never underwent scientific review.

Specifically, Gilman suspected that CPRIT had awarded this controversial "incubator" grant, which aims to enhance the existing small molecule lines of research while branching out into biologics, instead of funding seven smaller grants, totaling $39 million, that had already received positive review. And the grant was awarded despite “strikingly lacking in specific[s]” ...

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Meet the Author

Jef Akst
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Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.
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