UK, with magnet of National Cancer Institute designation, attracts 4 researchers and their $17 million in funding from U of L

“A month after the University of Kentucky announced it is home to the state’s first National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, an internationally recognized research team studying the role metabolism plays in cancer is leaving the University of Louisville for its chief in-state rival,” Laura Ungar reports for The Courier-Journal. “The four researchers . . . will bring with them more than $17 million in federal funding over five years.”

UK officials told Ungar they didn’t recruit the researchers, and a U of L official said the school made “a significant counter-offer.” But one of the researchers told Ungar that UK offered new equipment, new laboratory space and an opportunity to work with a wider group of collaborators.

“One area the scientists have been researching is lung cancer, which strikes and kills Kentuckians at the nation’s highest rate,” Ungar writes. “Their work includes a newly funded project from the National Cancer Institute on biochemistry in lung cancer.” (Read more)