Wisconsin has recently obtained its first elusive SPORE Grant. The SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence) grant is a large multi-investigator grant spearheaded by Paul Harari (Chair of Human Oncology) focusing on Head and Neck Cancers (HNC). The objective of the grant is to promote translational laboratory and clinical research to improve overall outcomes for patients with head and neck cancer. The grant is for five years and includes $15 million along with institutional matching funds. Associate Professor Jamey Weichert, PhD (Department of Radiology) is involved in one of the four major RO1 level projects titled “Therapeutic Combination of CLR1404 with External Beam Radiation in Head and Neck Cancer,” which will be led by Paul M. Harari, MD and Gregory K. Hartig, MD. It is being hailed as a, “…highly innovative project with an exceptional potential for a tremendous impact in the management of HNC, in fact, management of all solid tumors that use radiation therapy. There is no obvious weakness in this project. This project received a perfect impact score of 1.0.” If successful, the SPORE grant will help towards improving the quality of life for many HNC patients and may provide insight into using internal/external radiotherapy combinations in other cancers as well.