The Wistar Institute has received a $1 million grant from the state to develop the first practical blood test for lung cancer, officials announced today.
The $991,900 award is part of Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement Program, or CURE. Researchers at Wistar are working on a way to detect lung cancer in the early stage when it is most treatable.
Wistar Professor Louise C. Showe will head the team, which includes clinicians at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center and Temple University Health System. Stowe and her colleagues will be analyzing blood samples from lung cancer patient volunteers with the goal of developing a better way to collect and analyze samples in order to devise a commercially viable test.
“This funding will enable us to take that next step and turn biomedical discovery into medical reality,” Showe said in a news release announcing the grant.
In addition to Wistar, three other grant recipients received roughly $2.5 million: The Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research, Thomas Jefferson University, UE LifeSciences, Inc. All four, two-year research projects focus on cancer treatment technologies.
With the latest grants, twelve recipients statewide are receiving a total of $15.3 million.
