UC Irvine awarded $2.9-million cancer research grant

Paul Clinton

A federal health-care agency handed the university a $2.9-million

federal grant for cancer research Monday.

The Department of Health and Human Services oversaw the awarding

of the grant, which will be handed out over a five-year period, to

develop a miniature device to detect lesions and tumors in internal

organs.

Rep. Chris Cox, whose district includes the university as well as

Newport Beach, announced the grant funding.

“UCI has long been known as a top research institution because of

the talented and innovative researchers on campus,” Cox said. “This

team was awarded this grant because of the promising.”

Zhongping Chen, an associate professor of biomedical engineering,

is the lead investigator on the study, which is a collaborative

effort with researchers at UC Davis. Chen’s department is part of the

school’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering.

In August 2001, researchers submitted their application for the

funding to the National Institutes of Health, putting them in

competition with dozens of other funding requests. The National

Cancer Institute, which falls under that agency’s umbrella, formally

awarded the grant.

“UCI is a great benefit to [Cox’s] constituents,” UCI spokeswoman

Nicole Knight said. “Hopefully we’re making great strides in cancer

research here.”