New Federal Funding Expected for Houston’s Alliance for NanoHealth

The Alliance for NanoHealth, a consortium made up of seven Houston-area research institutions, including The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, is slated to receive $2.2 million in new federal funding.

The funding was included in the Fiscal Year 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Bill, an “omnibus” spending package that passed the U.S. Senate this week and received concurrence from the U.S. House of Representatives. The spending bill is now before the President to be signed into law.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and U.S. Rep. John Culberson announced the FY 2008 appropriations, which brings the total funding for the unique multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional research collaborative to $6.2 million, when added to $4 million for Alliance for NanoHealth projects already in the FY 2008 budget for the Department of Defense.

“Texas is a leader in the fast-growing field of nanotechnology,” said Hutchison, who is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “The Senate-passed funding will provide our researchers the necessary tools to help make groundbreaking medical discoveries that can benefit all Americans.”

“As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, my highest priority has been to provide the startup funding for this research endeavor that will improve the quality of life for every American,” Culberson said. “The Alliance for NanoHealth will give Houston the opportunity to be on the forefront of this new technology.”

“Senator Hutchison and Congressman Culberson continue to show extraordinary leadership in the field of science and medicine, and their long-term support for nanotechnology research is just one example of the impact on the future of health care for the citizens of Texas that these two individuals have made,” said UT Health Science Center at Houston President James T. Willerson, M.D. “We are very grateful.”

Nanotechnology is the science of building materials and devices from single atoms and ultra-small molecules measured in billionths of a meter.

Together with the UT Health Science Center at Houston, Alliance for NanoHealth member institutions include the Baylor College of Medicine, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Rice University, the University of Houston, Texas A&M University and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The mission of the alliance is to collectively bridge disciplines to develop nanotechnology-based solutions to unresolved problems in medicine, with the goal of providing new clinical approaches to saving lives.
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