The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas has granted more than $120 million to Houston organizations and companies as part of 73 new awards issued statewide.

The funds are part of nearly $154 million approved by the CPRIT's governing board earlier this month, bringing the organization's total investment in cancer prevention and research to more than $4 billion since its inception.

“Today marks an important milestone for CPRIT and for every Texan affected by cancer,” CEO Kristen Doyle said in a news release. “Texas has invested $4 billion in the fight against one of the world’s greatest public health challenges. Over 16 years, that support has helped Texas lead the search for breakthrough treatments, develop new cancer-fighting drugs and devices, and—most importantly—save tens of thousands of lives through early cancer detection and prevention. Every Texan should know this effort matters, and we’re not finished yet. Together, we will conquer cancer.”

A portion of the funding will go toward recruiting leading cancer researchers to Houston. CPRIT granted $5 million to bring John Quackenbush to Baylor College of Medicine. Quackenbush comes from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and is an expert in computational and systems biology. His research focuses on complex genomic data to understand cancer and develop targeted therapies.

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center also received $3 million to recruit Irfan Asangani, an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. His research focuses on how chromatin structure and epigenetic regulation drive the development and progression of cancer, especially prostate cancer.

Other funds will go towards research on a rare, aggressive kidney cancer that impacts children and young adults; screening programs for breast and cervical cancer; and diagnostic technology.

In total, cancer grants were given to:

• The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: $29.02 million
• Baylor College of Medicine: $15.04 million
• The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston: $9.37 million
• Texas A&M University System Health Science Center: $1.2 million
• University of Houston: $900,000

Additional Houston-based companies landed grants, including:

• Crossbridge Bio Inc.: $15.01 million
• OncoMAGNETx Inc.: $13.97 million
• Immunogenesis Inc.: $10.85 million
• Diakonos Oncology Corporation: $7.16 million
• Iterion Therapeutics Inc.: $7.13 million
• NovaScan Inc.: $3.7 million
• EMPIRI Inc.: $2.59 million
• Air Surgical Inc.: $2.58 million
• Light and Salt Association: $2.45 million

See the full list of awards here.