Members of InnovationNJ (Einstein’s Alley is a member) toured the laboratory of Yibin Kang, Princeton University Professor of Molecular Biology and one of the nation’s leading researchers on cancer metastasis to learn about Princeton University’s work in cancer research.
Following the historic work of Princeton Professors Ted Taylor and Arnie Levine, Professor Kang launched his research career at Princeton in 2004 with the help of a $100,000 grant from the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research (NJCCR). The NJCCR has been the only entity in the state providing peer-reviewed grants awarded on a competitive basis to young faculty, post docs, graduate students and some undergraduate students, who bring a new and innovative approach to cancer research. That investment in Prof. Kang ten years ago has now resulted in over $20 million in federal and private foundation funding support coming to New Jersey to support his laboratory.
No funds were appropriated to the NJCCR’s grant program in FY2014, and funding for FY2015 was not included in the governor’s budget proposal.
Because of the exciting work going on in New Jersey at Princeton and Rutgers and the Cancer Institute of NJ, InnovationNJ has been supporting restoration of funding to the NJCCR for these types of innovative research programs, especially when they seek to partner university research with industry