{"id":157583,"date":"2024-11-14T17:14:18","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T22:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=157583"},"modified":"2025-03-12T11:14:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T15:14:31","slug":"awards-for-convergent-research-tackling-biggest-challenges-in-life-sciences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2024\/11\/14\/awards-for-convergent-research-tackling-biggest-challenges-in-life-sciences\/","title":{"rendered":"Awards for Convergent Research Tackling Biggest Challenges in Life Sciences"},"content":{"rendered":"

2024 Kilachand Fund Awards for Wong, Grinstaff, Khalil, Green, Boas, Dunlop, Holmes, Park et al
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By Chuck Leddy<\/a><\/p>\n

A slew of BU ENG faculty share in the honors as three interdisciplinary projects have received the 2024 awards from the Rajen Kilachand Fund for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering. Boston University trustee Rajen Kilachand (Questrom’74, Hon.’14) established the award fund in 2017 with the goal of spurring solutions to some of the biggest challenges in life sciences.<\/p>\n

Associate Professor Wilson Wong<\/a> (BME<\/a>) co-leads one project with Florian Douam<\/a>, a BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine assistant professor of virology, immunology, and microbiology. The project seeks to combine three technologies, all developed at BU, to solve the design, manufacturing, and delivery challenges of antibodies, potentially creating a powerful and versatile tool that could serve as a first line of defense against a future pandemic. BME faculty Mark Grinstaff<\/a>, Ahmad (Mo) Khalil<\/a>, and Alexander Green<\/a> are co-investigators.<\/p>\n

A project led by Professor David Boas (BME)\u2014along with Emily Stephen<\/a>, a College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of statistical neuroscience, and Mike Esterman<\/a>, a Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine associate professor of psychiatry\u2014seeks to improve our understanding of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) results. Their research might also enable new approaches for investigating and treating conditions ranging from Alzheimer’s disease to migraines.<\/p>\n

Associate Professor Mary Dunlop <\/a>(BME), Associate Professor Douglas Holmes (ME), Professor Harold Park (ME), and Joseph Larkin, a CAS assistant professor of biology and physics, are studying optogenetic techniques\u2014the use of light to influence and control cells\u2014to study, in real time, how bacteria pass genetic materials between cells. The goal is to learn how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, which is a massive global health problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we confront the toughest challenges in life sciences and engineering\u2014from heart disease to cancer to neurodegenerative disorders\u2014convergent research teams fueled by strategic University commitments have proven to be powerful engines for advancing fundamental discoveries and catalyzing transformational progress,\u201d says Professor Thomas Bifano<\/a> (ME, MSE, BME, ECE), who is BU\u2019s vice president and associate provost ad interim for research.<\/p>\n

Read the full story on BU’s<\/em> The Brink<\/a>.<\/h3>\n

Photo by Janice Checchio<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Convergent teams are advancing fundamental discoveries and catalyzing transformational progress.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2662,"featured_media":157594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236,257,1074,899,1092,1057,1193,1055,1034,1060,908,1050,1208,1080],"tags":[350,1038,833,284,992,656,894,633],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157583"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157596,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157583\/revisions\/157596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}