Three UNC-CH researchers snag big NIH awards

Three UNC Chapel Hill scientists have received prestigious National Institutes of Health awards that target high-risk research and innovation.

They are Joseph DeSimone, Klaus Hahn and Mark Zylka.

DeSimone received one of 18 Pioneer awards, which honors a scientist's creative in proposing pioneering biomedical and behavioral reserch. The award is worth up to $500,000 a year for five years.

DeSimone, a chemist with faculty appointments at both UNC-CH and N.C. State, will use the award to develop new methods to deliver proteins, antibodies and nucleic acids to specific locations in the body. The research will build on DeSimone's work.
If DeSimone's name rings a bell, this may be why.

Hahn and Zylka received the T-RO1, or "Transformative" awards, which free scientists from budget restraints and allow them to propose new, bold ideas that may require significant resources.

Hahn, a pharmacologist with the UNC-CH schools of medicine and pharmacy, is working with Harvard researcher Gaudenz Danuser to find new ways to measure how information flows through cells. Hahn says cellular signaling lies at the heart of most cell behavior.

Zylka, an assistant professor of cell and molecular physiology in the medical school, will look for new ways to provide pain relief without serious side affects. He will utilize medicinal chemistry to synthesize inactive compounds to at turn to active form once in the body.

For more on these awards, click here.