Summary of ANH Funding History:

The Alliance for NanoHealth (ANH) has received funding from the State of Texas and U.S. Congress. Over $16 million of funding has been utilized for:

• infrastructure development & equipment,
• seminars, workshops, & conferences,
• undergraduate student summer internships with ANH institutions,
• graduate student scholarships to attend nanomedicine workshops abroad,
• fellowships for both new and more experienced post-doctoral researchers,
• seed grant funding for high-risk collaborative research projects,
• planning grants intended to prepare multi-institutional teams for future Center of Excellence funding opportunities, and
• recruitment of world-class nano-bio researchers.

The ANH gained further federal funding support in 2008. Over $6.1 million was allocated between purchasing of core equipment items, upgrading of existing ANH Core Facilities, recruitment and training of new specialized personnel. The funding is critical to providing the essential capabilities that will allow the ANH to generate competitive grant applications for clinically relevant nanotechnology discovery that offers promise for future development and commercialization. More than $1.5 million of the total will be used in support of summer internships for undergraduates, a training program for graduates and fellowships for post-doctoral researchers. The ANH challenges graduate students and post doctoral fellows to design novel research projects that will foster new directions and bring new investigators to the field of nanotechnology research across multiple disciplines in collaboration between institutions. The support was received thanks to the incredible efforts and continued support from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Congressman John Culberson, (Archived news story from January 2008: "New Federal Funding Expected for Houston's Alliance for NanoHealth").

In 2007, the ANH received $1.1 million in federal funding. Approximately half of the appropriation funding was used for critical equipment purchases to enhance ANH Core Facilities at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) and the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC). The remaining funds were allocated towards a new ANH Preparatory Center funding program intended to solicit applications for planning grants that will support planning activities for groups of researchers to develop inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional research strategies to solve significant health care problems using nanomedicine approaches. The purpose of the request for applications (RFA) is to foster multidisciplinary nanomedicine projects and encourage communication between ANH member institutions that will lead to significant extramural funding to establish future Centers of Excellence.

In 2006, the ANH received $6.1 million in federal funding. $4.0 million was contracted through NASA for the establishment of the Space NanoHealth Laboratory (SNL) of the Alliance for NanoHealth with the objective to be of service to NASA in the solution of problems concerning the health care of astronauts in space exploration missions. The projects are being conducted in close coordination with NASA personnel and are structured to address specific human health risks identified in the "Bioastronautics Critical Path Roadmap". We envision the translation of the findings and technology developments arising from this program into potentially breakthrough advances in medicine for astronautic, civilian, and military applications. $2.1 million was contracted from the Department of Defense to create the Medical NanoVector Research and Development Center of the Alliance for NanoHealth. This Center incorporates world renowned experts in the fields of nanotechnology, biological/clinical sciences, bioengineering, in-vivo imaging, molecular resolution electron microscopy, mathematical/computational modeling of diseases and bio-barriers and cancer research in therapy and diagnosis.

The State of Texas also funded the Alliance $2.5M through the Emerging Technology Fund Subchapter F “Research Superiority Acquisition Award” to bring Dr. Mauro Ferrari, a world-renowned nanotechnology expert, to the Texas Medical Center.

In 2005, the Alliance received $6.4 million in federal funding. A portion of the funds was designated for construction and equipment of a clean room at the University of Houston at the Science and Engineering Research and Classroom Complex (SERCC). The build-out of this 200,000-square-foot complex has just been completed. The remaining portion of the funds was dedicated to nanohealth research. In the summer of 2005, sixty-eight letters of intent were reviewed and selected by the Internal Seed Grant Review Committee. Based on their decision, thirty-five full proposals for external review were selected for final review, of which, ten were awarded seed grant funds.

Breakdown of Funding:

FY 2008

• $750,000 ($717,000 actual) from the Department of Energy (DoE) will support summer internship training opportunities for 2-5 undergraduate students per year, award 2-year fellowships to graduate students for collaborative , interdisciplinary research, provide fellowship opportunities for post-doctoral researchers and create the prestigious ANH Distinguished Investigator Award to attract prominent leaders of innovation in the field of nanomedicine to be featured as Keynote Speakers and foster new collaborations.
• $846,000 ($813,490 actual) from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will support an ANH Training Program for Space Nanomedicine. Similar to the FY 2008 DoE funding, the NASA funding will also support summer internships for undergraduates, fellowships for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. The NASA support will also provide summer internships to high school teachers in Texas to inspire the translation and improve awareness of cutting-edge nanotechnology being performed in the ANH Community to select high school classrooms.
• $615,722 in equipment funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HRSA). Following an internal ANH request for proposals for high instrumentation that would enhance the collective capability and infrastructure, the funding will be used for the acquisition of a Deep Reactive Ion Etching System to support biomedical research in the Greater Houston Area (University of Houston) and the purchase of a Customized Nanolog Spectrofluorometer enhanced with tunable Ti:Sapp laser to support nano-biosensor and materials research (University of Houston).
• $4M (actual $3.4M) appropriations from the U.S. Army Research and Materiel Command’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Medicine program (TATRC) is used to support 13 pre-center and seed grants to advance new technologies, facilitate inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional participation and prepare for future applications for center grants.

FY2007

• The $1.1M ($934K actual) from the Department of Defense (DoD) was allocated towards interdisciplinary research in the form of a new ANH Preparatory Center Grant Program and to critical equipment purchases. The planning grants were awarded to those multi-institutional teams preparing for future Centers of Excellence opportunities. $167,537 was allocated to UTHSC (PI: Mauro Ferrari PhD., The Medical NanoVector Research and Development Center of the Alliance for Nanohealth), $255,031 to UTMDACC (PI: Chun Li PhD, Theragnostics: Multifunctional Targeted Nanocarriers for Minimally Invasive Intervention) and $176,213 to Rice University (PI: Dr. J Tour PhD, Center for Nanovectored Therapeutics). The remaining funds were reserved for critical equipment purchases by the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB).

FY2006

• The $2.1M ($1.768M actual) from the Department of Defense (DoD) was allocated towards interdisciplinary research between the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSC-H), University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (UTMDACC), and the Baylor College of Medicine (BCM).
• The $4.0M ($3.696M actual) from the Science, State, Commerce, Justice (SSCJ) appropriation was contracted through NASA. These funds were allocated to the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSC-H) and Rice University to support nanotechnology research for space medicine with the objective to be of service to NASA in the solution of problems concerning the health care of astronauts in space exploration missions.
• The State of Texas also funded the Alliance $2.5M through the Emerging Technology Fund Subchapter F “Research Superiority Acquisition Award” to recruit Dr. Mauro Ferrari, a world-renowned nanotechnology expert, to the Texas Medical Center.

FY2005

• The $2.8M Department of Defense (DoD) earmark was received in October 2006. The actual disbursement of $2.34M, was partitioned towards the funding of multi-discipline, collaborative, research grant awards and administrative core of the Alliance for NanoHealth. Approximately $2.0M was allocated to fund the ten peer-reviewed seed grant proposals that required the collaboration between at least two ANH member institutions.
• The $0.6M ($579K actual) Department of Energy (DOE) earmark was allocated for the build-out efforts of the University of Houston’s new clean room.
• The $1.0M ($982K actual) Labor-Health and Human Services (Labor-HHS) earmark was utilized for equipment and build-out of the University of Houston’s new cleanroom.
• The $2.0M Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development (VA-HUD)/NASA earmark is currently supporting a joint research program between the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSCH-H), Rice University, and NASA Johnson Space Center for the development of carbon-based nanomaterials for spaceflight healthcare applications. These funds, which $1.984M was actually received, have allowed for the hiring of four new researchers at the UTHSC-H (two research faculty & 2 postdoctoral fellows) and seven new researchers at Rice University (seven postdoctoral fellows). Each of these newly recruited research personnel have specialized training in biomedical nanotechnology. Additionally, the VA-HUD/NASA funds supported six summer internships (four undergraduates and two students from the DeBakey High School).