Cancer researchers at the University of Chicago will receive a $90 million grant on Monday from an international nonprofit to fund their projects, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The school is among six institutions to share a $540 million grant to "advance new treatments aimed at eradicating cancer," from the Ludwig Cancer Research, funds established by the late American shipping magnate Daniel Ludwig. Each institution will receive $90 million in new grants from the fund, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"The Ludwig funding enables us to increase the pace of discovery at a time when federal research funding has been severely curtailed," Kenneth S. Polonsky, executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Chicago, said in a statement. "It is an honor to be part of this small, elite group, and a pleasure to anticipate the many ways that this cancer research program may lead to breakthroughs in cancer treatment."
Ludwig's funds already support studies of radiation, hormone therapy and metastasis at the University of Chicago.
The university said the money will also be used to expand the cancer research center at the school, buy exceptional equipment and recruit scientists "who would otherwise be impossible to get," Geoffrey Greene, chairman of the Ben May Department for Cancer Research at the University of Chicago, said in a statement.
"It would not be possible to obtain this kind of funding from, say, the National Institutes of Health. Thanks to the Ludwig gift, we plan to make this center one of the best in the world," he added.
The institutions that will also receive grants are Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The gift comes at a time when government and private funding for medical research is on the decline.
