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$2.8 Million in Federal Funding
Secured for NanoHealth Alliance
The Alliance for NanoHealth, a coalition of five Houston research institutions including The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, has been awarded $2.8 million in federal funding.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison announces federal funding for the Alliance
for NanoHealth during a news conference at the University of Houston.
From left are UT Health Science Center at Houston Vice President for
Biotechnology S.Ward Casscells III, M.D.; President James T. Willerson,
M.D.; U.S. Rep. John Culberson; and Rice University Professor of Physics
and Chemistry Richard Smalley, Ph.D., 1996 Nobel Laureate in chemistry.
Photo Courtesy of the University of Houston
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and U.S. Rep. John Culberson announced the funding, provided in the U.S. Department of Defense fiscal year 2005 appropriations bill, during a news conference Aug. 17 at the University of Houston.
“Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize modern medicine, and the Alliance for NanoHealth is leading the way. I am proud to have secured new funds to advance this groundbreaking research,” Hutchison said. “As Congress continues writing next year’s budget, I hope we can direct even more resources to this critical project.”
Scientists and leaders from all five institutions attended the announcement, including UT Health Science President James T. Willerson, M.D., and S. Ward Casscells III, M.D., the UT Health Science Center’s vice president for biotechnology and the John Edward Tyson Distinguished Professor of Medicine and professor of cardiology at the UT Medical School at Houston.
Casscells played a lead role for the university in launching the alliance with UH, Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine and the UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Nanotechnology is the science of building materials and devices from single atoms and ultrasmall molecules measured in billionths of a meter.
“Nanotechnology has the potential to greatly enhance our ability to diagnose, treat and prevent disease at the molecular level,” Casscells said. “The five institutions that form the Alliance for NanoHealth are perfectly suited to explore and develop biomedical applications from this promising new science.”
Hutchison, Culberson and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay led the way in securing federal funding for the alliance. The alliance will decide how the $2.8 million will be apportioned to research projects among its members.
“As a member of the Appropriations Committee, my highest priority has been to provide the startup funding for this research endeavor that will improve the quality of life for every American,” Culberson said. “The Alliance for NanoHealth will give Houston the opportunity to be on the forefront of this new technology.”
Casscells’ nanotechnology research group in the Medical School Division of Cardiology organized the first scientific meeting of the alliance, which attracted 300 scientists to a daylong meeting in May at the Texas Heart Institute. The group also developed a Web site for the alliance: http://www.nanohealthalliance.org/ .
Under a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Project Administration, Casscells’ group is studying nanotechnological delivery of medication and imaging agents.
— By Scott Merville, Public Affairs