CPRIT awards more than $12 million to BCM for cancer…

Houston, TX - May 27, 2026

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Researchers at the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine have been awarded more than $12 million in grants by the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) to support innovative cancer research, treatments and training programs. CPRIT awarded more than $103 million in grants to institutions across Texas, including eight grants to Baylor, to advance the fight against cancer.

Awards to Baylor include:

Dr. Norihiro Watanabe, assistant professor in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, received a high-impact high-risk research award of $250,000 for research titled "Allo-resistant off-the-shelf armed CAR-Vδ2 T cell therapy for osteosarcoma."

Dr. Ganesh Rao, Marc J. Shapiro Professor and chair of the Department of Neurosurgery, received an individual investigator award of $899,013 for research titled "Defining the functional impact of CX3CR1 variants in IDH-mutant glioma progression."

Dr. Dimitrios Wagner, assistant professor in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, received an individual investigator award of $900,000 for research titled "A clinical trial-compatible pooled base editing screen to identify gene edits that enhance CAR T cell function."

Dr. Leo Luznik, senior faculty in the Department of Medicine and section chief of hematology and oncology, received an individual investigator research award for clinical trials of $1.6 million for research titled "Menin inhibition to prevent relapse and enhance immunity in MLL-rearranged acute leukemias or NPM1-mutant myeloid malignancies after alloHSCT with PTCy."

Dr. Jeffrey Rosen, distinguish service professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, received a $2.4 million grant for the Baylor College of Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Training Program.

Dr. Aaron Thrift, professor in the Department of Medicine and section chief of epidemiology and population sciences, received a $2.4 million grant for the Cancer Epidemiology with Real-World Data Training Program.
Baylor also received $4 million for recruitment of two first-time, tenure-track faculty members.

To date, CPRIT has awarded more than $4 billion in grants to Texas research institutions and organizations through its academic research, prevention and product development programs. Read more about the most recent round of CPRIT funding here.