The US National Cancer Institute announced that next year it will stop funding the Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence, reports Science. The Centers encompasses several research groups at various institutions, including Caltech, the University of California, Los Angeles, Northwestern University, Cornell University, and others, according to its website.
The Centers of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNEs) focus on developing nanotechnology for cancer treatment. The end to funding represents a “natural transition” from putting dedicated support into an emerging field to becoming a more mature research field that fits in with other cancer fields, says Piotr Grodzinski of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Nanodelivery Systems and Devices Branch, which oversees the CCNEs, to Science.
The CCNEs started in 2005 as eight research groups in the first phase, nine getting funding in 2010 in the second phase, and six funded...