Nov. 4, 2024
Four UW faculty teams received the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute’s (MolES) new Pilot Awards. These awards aim to seed new research initiatives and support preliminary data generation. They are sponsored by MolES with matching funds from the Sepsis Center of Research Excellence (SCORE) and Kidney Research Institute (KRI). A four-member committee from the sponsoring institutes chose the projects. Each team will receive up to $10,000 in funding to kickstart their work.
The awards were created after several scientific exchanges with MolES faculty, SCORE and KRI members. These meetings were the first to forge connections between MolES investigators and the leadership of SCORE, KRI and advanced manufacturing. The groups gave MolES members an overview of their work and primary technology needs.
“Our primary aim with these awards is to ignite innovative, interdisciplinary collaboration by offering crucial seed funding,” said Suzie Pun, MolES director and Washington Research Foundation Endowed Professor of Bioengineering. “Together, our faculty and doctors can develop cutting-edge technologies pivotal for diagnosing and treating sepsis and kidney disease and developing new technologies for advanced manufacturing.”
2024-25 MolES Pilot Awardees:
- “Molecular layer deposition for extreme ultraviolet photoresists,” led by David Bergsman, professor of chemical engineering, and Aniruddh Vashisth, professor of mechanical engineering.
- “Developing capillaric microfluidics to determine ARDS subphenotypes,” led by Eric Morrell, professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine and co-director of the UW Lung Transplant Biorepository and Ayòkúnle Olánreqájú, professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering.
- “Rapid point-of-care diagnosis of melioidosis with polymer-dot metabolic sensors,” led by Daniel Chiu, the A. Bruce Montgomery Professor and endowed professor of analytical chemistry in the Department of Chemistry Chiu and Eoin West, professor of global health and medicine. Their research is partially funded by the Sepsis Center of Research Excellence (SCORE).
- “Screening biomarkers for human kidney microvascular endothelial injury in a cytokine storm,” led by Ying Zheng, professor of bioengineering, and Chen and Pavan Bhatraju, professor of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine.