Three faculty members earn research grants

Three UNC faculty members working at the cutting edge of biomedicine are among the recipients of two prestigious grants awarded Thursday by the National Institutes of Health.

Joseph DeSimone received the Pioneer Award, one of only 18 presented this year, while Mark Zylka and Klaus Hahn both received Transformative R01 Awards. Only 42 were awarded nationwide.

Both awards are given to individuals conducting innovative, nontraditional and high-risk research that could lead to breakthroughs in biomedicine, according to the NIH’s Web site.

The UNC recipients said they are enthusiastic about how the awards will improve their research. They said they plan to use the funds to hire staff and buy supplies that could facilitate their work.

DeSimone, whose chemistry and nanotechnology research span multiple disciplines, has been working on transferring biological therapeutics like proteins into the body in more efficient ways.

For one of his projects, DeSimone is developing a method for biological drugs to be inhaled nasally to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.

This process would require the drug to penetrate a barrier between the bloodstream and the brain, which is not an easy feat, DeSimone said.

“Overcoming the blood-brain barrier is one of these holy grails of medical research,” he said.

He said he plans on using the grant, which provides up to $500,000 a year for five years, on paying student assistants, hiring postdoctoral research associates and purchasing supplies.

“This gives me license to do what I want to do,” he said.

Zylka, one of the winners of the Transformative R01 Award and an assistant professor in the cell and molecular physiology department, has been conducting research focused on relieving pain without serious side effects.

“Our research is focused on inhibiting pain-sensing neurons but not other cells in the body,” Zylka said.

Zylka said the Transformative R01 grant, an amount that will be based on his budget, will allow him to hire more staff.

“It’s going to allow us to bring in talented people to move research forward a lot faster,” Zylka said.

Hahn, the other UNC recipient of the Transformative R01 Award and a professor of pharmacology, has been researching ways of measuring how information is transmitted between large networks inside cells.


Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.