Animal Cancer Center Awarded $1 Mil Construction Grant from National Institutes of Health

The Animal Cancer Center at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital is the recipient of a $1 million Research Facilities Construction Grant from the National Center for Research Resources, a division of the National Institutes of Health.

The grant was one of only a handful issued in the amount of $1 million, the largest award out of a total of only 30 issued by the NCRR in fiscal year 1999. The grant is considered highly prestigious because federal funds for this purpose are limited and the award process is peer-reviewed, stringent and highly competitive.

"The awarding of this prestigious grant validates the important work being done at the Animal Cancer Center," said Dr. James Voss, Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. " We are very proud of our oncology team and the research they are doing."

The NCRR’s Research Facilities Construction Grant provides matching federal funds to public and nonprofit private institutions to expand, remodel, renovate or alter existing research facilities, or to construct new facilities. These facilities must be used for basic and clinical biomedical or behavioral research.

Colorado State University recently initiated a campaign to raise $9 million for a new 30,000-square-foot, two-story wing to be added to the college’s existing Veterinary Teaching Hospital and dedicated primarily to cancer research and treatment. The wing will house examination rooms, research space, tumor tissue processing and archiving, magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear and complementary medicine.

"We are very gratified that the work we’ve done has been acknowledged in this way," said Dr. Stephen Withrow, Chief of Clinical Oncology Service and the Comparative Oncology Unit. "This grant helps bring us a little closer to our goal: $9 million to build a much needed new wing. The additional space will give us a better facility to continue our research into how to treat–and possibly prevent–cancer in animals. This research also has an impact on human cancer."

Animal Cancer Center staff annually treat more than 1,500 new animals with cancer involving some 6,000 diagnostic, treatment and follow-up visits. While the majority of these cases are from the western region, a growing national and international reputation has increased the number of telephone consultations to about 300 per week.

This is the second grant earned by the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State in the past two years. In 1997, the NCRR awarded a major grant for the completion of a state-of-the-art, Biocontainment Level 3 lab at the foothills campus. The lab is scheduled for full occupancy by April 2000.

Contact at NCRR: Kathy Kaplan, Public Liaison and Information Officer, Office of Science Policy at (301) 435-0888.