James Liang wins $464K NIH Grant to Develop New Peptide Design Approaches
The project has the potential for wide impact in biological and pharmaceutical applications.
Jun F. (James) Liang, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Stevens Institute of Technology, was recently awarded a grant of $463,600 from the National Institutes of Health for his project “Membrane-Acting Peptides.”
Bioactive peptides regulate many physiological processes—acting at some sites as endocrine or paracrine signals, and at others as neurotransmitters or growth factors—and have important and positive impacts on human health. These benefits include antimicrobial, antifungal, antiviral, and antitumor activities.
However, man-made peptides are usually less able to compete with natural protein ligands, and thus are often insufficient for being efficient therapeutics. In this project, Liang will explore new approaches to peptide design for wide biological and pharmaceutical applications.
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