To learn about the CPRIT scandal, start here

Here is a starting point for researching the CPRIT / UT funding scandal. It's in Nature newsblog item entitled Texas cancer institute to re-review controversial grant. It's kind of old (from May of this year) but is a good overview and has many links.

The Texas cancer world has been rocked by controversy since the 8 May resignation of Alfred Gilman, a Nobel laureate and chief scientific officer at the US$3-billion, taxpayer-funded Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) in Austin.

In leaving, Gilman cited his concerns about an $18-million “incubator” grant speedily awarded in March, without scientific review, to a team at the Institute for Applied Cancer Science (IACS) at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Gilman left UT Southwestern to go work for CPRIT.


UPDATE 11/28/12:
Houston Chronicle reports that Jerry Cobbs, the cheif commercialization officer at CPRIT, has resigned.

Cobbs also tried, in March, to slow down the fast-track approval process for the largest grant awarded by the cancer agency.