The 黑料网-Chapel Hill Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research announced the 2019 Creativity Hubs Awards to accelerate solutions to societal challenges. These are two-year grants for up to $500,000.
What if data on the devastating impacts of extreme storms and floods could inform and predict future problems for people who live along a coast? What if scientists could develop a therapy capable of suppressing a wide variety of viral infections, saving lives and billions of dollars in direct medical and economic costs? What if powerful chemical and genetic tools are combined to alter how genes are modified to treat human disease? And what if artificial intelligence could help identify the best way to harness solar fuels?
These are the questions being explored by the winning teams of this year鈥檚 Creativity Hubs awards. Managed by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) in support of Carolina鈥檚 Blueprint for Next Strategic Framework, the Creativity Hubs award program encourages and supports diverse, interdisciplinary teams that pursue answers to complex societal problems.
鈥淪o multifaceted are these challenges, that the only way to solve them is through the diverse perspectives offered by scientists from diverse fields,鈥� said Vice Chancellor for Research Terry Magnuson, PhD. 鈥淪upporting these teams through the Creativity Hubs awards yields solutions.鈥�
This year, in partnership with the 黑料网 College of Arts & Sciences鈥� Institute for Convergent Science, the 黑料网, and the Eshelman Institute for Innovation at the 黑料网 Eshelman School of Pharmacy, the OVCR awarded three teams with two years of funding worth up to $500,000.
黑料网 researchers are co-principal investigators for two of the three hubs: The听ID3@黑料网 Hub听(the Infectious Disease Drug Discovery Program) and the听Chemical Epigenomics Hub听(Integrating Scientific Fields to Enable Grant Discoveries).
Addressing a critical unmet public health need, the听ID3@黑料网 Hub听brings together scientists across听the fields of virology, proteomics, bioinformatics, chemical biology, and drug discovery to provide new antiviral therapeutics useful for treating multiple viral diseases. This hub will be led by Nathaniel Moorman, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the 黑料网, and Ken Pearce, PhD, at the 黑料网 Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Other 黑料网 faculty include Shawn Gomez, EngScD, Lee Graves, PhD, Mark Heise, PhD, and Stan Lemon, MD, as well as Ralph Baric, PhD, who has a joint appointment in the department of microbiology and immunology.
The听Chemical Epigenomics Hub听combines chemical biology approaches with epigenetics to identify, develop, and apply chemical tools to better understand epigenetic processes, ultimately improving the treatment of human disease. This hub will be led by Brian Strahl, PhD, professor of biochemistry and biophysics and an Oliver Smithies Investigator, along with Samantha Pattenden, PhD, research assistant professor at the 黑料网 Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Other 黑料网 faculty are Ian Davis, MD, PhD, Ryan Miller, MD, PhD, Robert Duronio, PhD, Greg Matera, PhD, Daniel McKay, PhD, and John Sondek, PhD.
Moorman, Pearce, Heise, Lemon, Baric, Strahl, Pattenden, Davis, Miller, Duronio, Matera, and Sondek are members of the 黑料网 Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The Creativity Hubs award program was developed听by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research to foster fluid, cross-disciplinary research,听to establish听campus听networks that nurture research innovation and risk-taking, and to promote a听pervasive culture that听drives听discovery and curiosity. This year鈥檚 winners of the Creativity Hubs awards were selected听from听23 proposals, involving 207 黑料网 researchers representing 46 departments across 11 schools and the College of Arts & Sciences.
Read more about the听.
News courtesy of 黑料网 Health Care Communications.