The US government has committed $150m through Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) awards to advance research funding under the Cancer Moonshot initiative.
The new ARPA-H grants will aim to develop technologies to enhance tumour-removal surgeries’ success for cancer patients and improve health outcomes.
These grants will fund research teams from eight locations nationwide, all working on solutions within ARPA-H’s Precision Surgical Interventions (PSI) programme.
Over two years ago, the US administration relaunched the Cancer Moonshot initiative to cut the cancer death rate in the US by at least 50% by 2047 and enhance the experience of those affected by cancer.
To support this mission, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris secured bipartisan Congressional backing to establish ARPA-H.
The awards were designed to drive cancer prevention, detection, and treatment breakthroughs.
ARPA-H has allocated more than $400m in its first two years to accelerate advancements in these critical areas.
ARPA-H’s PSI programme enhances the effectiveness of tumour removal surgeries by reducing the need for repeat operations and minimising damage to healthy tissue.
The first eight awardees in the programme are Dartmouth College, Johns Hopkins University, Rice University, Tulane University, University of California, San Francisco, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Washington, and Cision Vision.
The $150m grants include $22.9 for Tulane University, $18m for Rice University and $21.1m for the University of Washington to develop imaging systems and techniques to visualise individual cells on the surface of removed tumours.
In addition, Johns Hopkins University will get $20.9m, the University of California and San Francisco will get $15.1m, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will receive $32.6m to create new microscopes and tools to detect microscopic cancer remnants.
Furthermore, Dartmouth College will accept $31.3m and Johns Hopkins University, and Cision Vision will get $22.3m to develop dye-based and other techniques.
The latest announcement continues the efforts of the Biden-Harris administration to transform cancer care.
In early August, the US Department of Health and Human Services awarded $9m to 18 HRSA-funded health centres to enhance access to crucial cancer screenings in underserved communities.
Additionally, in the same month, ARPA-H introduced POSEIDON, a new programme investing in technologies for more accurate cancer screenings, potentially even at home.
