Five Professors in the Department of Chemistry, Chemical Biology, and Biomedical Engineering (CCBBME) welcomed new research funding over the summer, significantly expanding the depth and breadth of projects in the department.

Prof. Hongjun Wang received $383,000 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to pursue a project entitled, "Rapid creation of autologous skin substitutes for wound repair." With this award, Dr. Wang becomes the third CCBBME investigator to receive NIH support this year.

Both of the other NIH-funded investigators, Prof. Junfeng Liang and Prof. Xiaojun Yu, also increased their funding over the summer. Prof. Liang received a $410,000 grant from NIH to study "Intracellular radiation for infection disease treatment," bringing his current level of grant support to over $1.2 million through four independent NIH grants. Prof. Yu, who received NIH funding earlier this year, was notifed that the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation will provide $260,000 to fund his project, entitled "Novel structured nanofibrous scaffolds for bone healing." The Coulter Foundation provides Phase II funding to offer investigators the chance to translate their findings into clinical practice. Prof. Yu's project is a collaboration with Prof. Cato T Laurencin, Vice President for Health Affairs, Dean of the School of Medicine, Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Chair in Academic Medicine, Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Chemical, Materials and Biomolecular Engineering, and Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Connecticut who serves as the Clinical Principal Investigator on the project and Dr. Sangamesh G Kumbar, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Chemical, Materials and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Connecticut Health Center who is a Co-Principal Investigator of the project.

Prof. Svetlana Sukhishvili, who already oversees two projects funded by the National Science Foundation, added support by the Defense Advanced Research Planning Agency (DARPA) to her portfolio. DARPA elected to provide $200,000 for sponsorship of a project entitled, " Effect of oxidation of silver on SERS enhancement." This project is an intra-departmental collaboration between Prof. Sukhishvili and Prof. Henry Du, Director, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.

Finally, Prof. Philip Leopold, working with collaborators from Qatar and Norway, received funding to study " Rigid cationic carotenoid lipids as novel miRNA delivery vectors." Prof. Leopold and his colleagues, Profs. Vassilia Partali and Richard Sliwka from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) will serve as Co-Principal Investigators while Prof. Michael Pungente of the Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar will serve as the Principal Investigator on this project funded by the Qatar National Research Fund. The proposal will provide Prof. Leopold with $243,000 to support evaluation of new gene delivery vectors.

These grants bring the current value of ongoing, funded research projects in the Department to over $2.5 million.

For more information, please contact:

Philip Leopold
Professor & Department Director
McLean
Room 515
Phone: 201.216.8957
Fax: 201.216.8196
pleopold@stevens.edu