Answers sought as $3B Texas cancer agency meets
"AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas put $3 billion on the table to prove it was serious about fighting cancer, but it will take more than money to convince scientists that's still the case.
Hundreds of the nation's top cancer researchers want answers and reassurance this week from the embattled Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, which is reeling after mass resignations and serious internal accusations that have put the nation's second-biggest pot of cancer research dollars in jeopardy.
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Thirty-three of the agency's scientific peer reviewers have recently resigned, many in protest. Nobel laureate Dr. Phillip Sharp, who headed the agency's scientific review council, wrote in a resignation letter this month that the agency is making funding decisions that carry a "suspicion of favoritism" in how the state hands out taxpayer dollars.
Others were more blunt: Dr. William Kaelin of Harvard Medical School, who also served on the council, accused the agency of "hucksterism."
The backlash stems from a $20 million commercialization grant awarded earlier this year for a so-called incubator project at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. It was among the largest grants in the agency's young history and was approved without a scientific review, leading the agency's chief scientific officer to step down."
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