UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL — Three scientists from UNC Chapel Hill have received prestigious awards from the National Institutes of Health aimed at encouraging “high-risk” research and innovation.

Joseph DeSimone has been selected for a Pioneer Award, one of only 18 such honors handed out this year, while Klaus Hahn and Mark Zylka are both receiving Transformative RO1 Awards.

The Pioneer Award includes a grant of $2.5 million over five years. The T-RO1 award grant is not specified on the NIH Web site.

The grants are to encourage investigators to explore bold ideas that have the potential to catapult fields forward and speed the translation of research into improved health.

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 T-RO1 grants come with without the traditional budget cap or requirement for preliminary results, and with the flexibility to work in large, complex teams. Scientists are free to propose new, bold ideas that may require significant resources to pursue.

DeSimone, a chemistry professor, will use his award to develop new methods for delivering promising biological therapeutics — such as proteins, antibodies and nucleic acids — to specific locations in the body in a safe and effective fashion.

The research will build on DeSimone’s existing work, including his invention of techniques for mass-producing “custom made” micro- and nanoparticles tailored to have specific sizes, shapes and surface properties. That technology, know as PRINT (Particle Replication in Non-wetting Templates), is exclusively licensed to Liquidia Technologies, a UNC spin-off company.

Hahn, a professor of pharmacology, is collaborating with Harvard University’s Gaudenz Danuser to develop new methods of measuring how information flows through large signaling networks within cells.

Zylka, assistant professor of cell and molecular physiology, will investigate new ways to provide pain relief without serious side effects. His research will focus on harnessing particular enzymes found on the membrane of pain-sensing neurons and determining if these enzymes can be used alone or in combination to treat acute and chronic pain.