Governor Taft annouced Wednesday that Ohio State University will receive an $8-million grant to try to find new ways to prevent and treat lung cancer. The award is part of the state's Third Frontier initiative.
Governor Taft presented the award to the Ohio State University's James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. The award comes from the Biomedical Research and Technology Transfer Trust Fund, which receives revenues from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement of 1998. The money will go towards the creation of a Comprehensive Program for the Prevention, Detection, and Treatment of Lung Cancer at OSU.
OSU will partner with Battelle, Zivena, and Siemens Medical Solutions.
Michael Caligiuri, Program Director and Principal Investigator of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at OSU, says the center will provide the opportunity for all of the partners to take a comprehensive overview of lung cancer treatment.
Governor Taft says the new Lung Cancer Center is expected to create 60 jobs over the next 3 years, and more than 1,000 jobs over the next 10 years.
He denies the announcement was timed to help his efforts to convince voters to approve a $500 million ballot question to fund the Third Frontier project.