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Federal Spending Bill Includes $7.4 Million
for Alliance for NanoHealth
The Omnibus Appropriations Act, signed in December by President George W. Bush, contains $7.4 million designated for the Alliance for NanoHealth - which includes The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston as a founding member of the research initiative.
The coalition of six Houston-area research institutions has been awarded $2.8 million in U.S. Department of Defense funding to develop interdisciplinary research projects on various aspects of nanotechnology.
NASA funding includes $2 million earmarked for additional collaborative research projects among the alliance members.
The appropriations bill designates $1.6 million to construct and equip a special laboratory (or "clean" room) at the University of Houston (UH), a member institution.
Funding from the federal departments of Labor and Health and Human Services provide $1 million to another member, Rice University, for construction of a proteomics lab to pursue the study of fullerenes.
S. Ward Casscells III, M.D., the UT Health Science Center's vice president for biotechnology, was an early advocate for developing a research hub in Houston for nanotechnology, which is the science of building materials and devices at the molecular level.
"Nanotechnology has the potential to greatly enhance our ability to diagnose, treat and prevent disease at the molecular level," said Casscells, who also is the John Edward Tyson Distinguished Professor of Medicine and professor of cardiology at the UT Medical School at Houston. "The Alliance for NanoHealth is especially grateful to Congressman John Culberson for encouraging these Houston institutions to be on the forefront of this exciting technology. He has helped to provide funding for the alliance so that we can provide new clinical approaches to saving lives with this promising science."
Under a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Project Administration, Casscells' nanotechnology research group in the Medical School is studying ways nanotechnology can deliver medication and imaging agents in patients.
When it formed last May, the Alliance for NanoHealth was composed of Baylor College of Medicine, the UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, the UT Health Science Center, Rice and UH. The UT Medical Branch at Galveston recently became its sixth member institution.
By David R. Bates, Public Affairs