The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU Anschutz) has announced the nine faculty projects that will receive $50 million in funding from the Anschutz Acceleration Initiative.

Funded by a grant from the Anschutz Foundation in 2023, the initiative aims to advance research and cutting-edge healthcare innovations in areas such as preventative care to help scientists develop the next generation of therapies and healthcare solutions. The nine winning projects were selected from 165 letters of intent and 56 full proposals submitted by faculty from across the medical school’s departments and disciplines, including oncology, dermatology, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, pharmacology, and dental medicine. Each project will be funded for three to five years with the goal of rapidly bringing transformational therapies and protocols to the healthcare field.

Recipients and funded projects include: Eduardo Davila (medical oncology), to develop methodologies and technologies to reduce production times and costs for cellular immunotherapies; Maryam Asgari, (dermatology), to implement personalized skin cancer screening that uses genetic and clinical risk factors to identify high-risk subgroups; Dan Matlock (geriatrics) and Russell Glasgow (family medicine), to develop comprehensive patient-centered personalization programs for cross-disciplinary medical decision making; and Jeffrey Stansbury (dental medicine), to enhance the affordability of 3D printed antimicrobial and antifungal dental prosthetics.

“The Anschutz Foundation has championed the people and programs that drive innovation here,” said CU Anschutz chancellor Donald M. Elliman. “As a result, we have become recognized locally, nationally, and internationally as leaders in healthcare innovation.”

For a complete list of the funded projects, see the CU Anschutz website.

(Photo credit: Getty Images/German Adrasti)