The National Institutes of Health announced today that IAM Director Joseph DeSimone has been selected for a prestigious Pioneer Award. One of only 18 conferred this year, the Pioneer Award supports ‘individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose pioneering-- and possibly transforming approaches - to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research'. The Pioneer Award includes a grant of $2.5 million over five years to encourage and enable investigators to explore bold ideas that have the potential to catapult fields forward and speed the translation of research into improved health.
DeSimone, Chancellor's Eminent Professor of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, and William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University, will use the award to develop new methods for delivering promising biological therapeutics, such as proteins, antibodies and nucleic acids, selectively to specific locations in the body in a safe and effective fashion. This work will combine DeSimone's existing technology for producing precisely engineered particles with novel delivery techniques.
PRINT® (Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates) is a technique for mass-producing "custom made" micro- and nanoparticles with specific sizes, shapes and surface properties that has been exclusively licensed to Liquidia Technologies, a UNC spin-off company of which DeSimone is a founder. The novel delivery techniques include inhalation and minimally invasive ionotophoretic devices. Treatments for a broad spectrum of conditions including cancer, autoimmune, inflammatory, ophthalmologic and infectious diseases are targeted.
DeSimone is a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the pharmacology department in the School of Medicine; the founding director of the IAM, and the UNC Institute for Nanomedicine; and co-principal investigator of the Carolina Center of Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 24 September 2009 16:40 |
