Texas doled out the first round of grants from a $3 billion publicly funded program to boost in-state cancer research. Almost all of the initial $61 million went to in-state academic institutions like University of Texas, Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine. Two private companies have also received money—InGeneron, a developer of cell separation and diagnostics tools based in Houston, and Visualase, a designer of precision lasers used to ablate brain tumors, also based in Houston. In order to boost the state's private sector, the fund's managing body, the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), closed a parallel round of applications in March exclusively for companies. CPRIT hopes the money will foster a fledgling biotech industry, attract top researchers and lure new business to Texas. To show its commitment, the CPRIT states that it will pay half an institutional endowment with “no limit” to draw a senior scientist. The program's chief scientific officer, Alfred Gilman, hopes the granting process will make the state more attractive to venture capitalists. The vetting from CPRIT's review council, made up of directors from the nation's top cancer research centers, “should be a big vote of confidence” for potential investors, he says. CPRIT funded 66 out of 881 applications in its first round. Of the grants, two-thirds had translational components, many in genetics, epigenetics and imaging. “We need to find young entrepreneurial CEOs who are willing to go anywhere to chase good, promising science,” Gilman says.