NIH awards $3.2M for development of highly efficient system of generating nucleic acid molecules
April 04, 2017
"I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with this outstanding team of scientists," said James Thomson, Co-Director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering at UCSB, and Director of Regenerative Biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research in Wisconsin. "This grant will strengthen the continuing collaborative efforts between UC Santa Barbara, the Morgridge Institute, and University of Wisconsin-Madison, bringing together leading edge technologies and experts from different disciplines."
"This is an exciting project to address a major barrier to progress in biological research: the lack of effective reagents to specifically bind to target proteins that play central roles in cell biology," said Lloyd Smith, professor of chemistry at University of Wisconsin, Madison, and Director of the Genome Center of Wisconsin.
"There is a new paradigm in medicine called theranostics, or point-of-care testing of a patient's reaction to a medication," explained Soh. "They've just started doing this in larger research hospitals, and to great effect. I believe our integrated technology will someday allow a technician in a small clinic to make a quick diagnosis. Making it affordable for everyone to use is really the value that engineers can provide."
Their research is supported by the Institute of Collaborative Biotechnologies at UCSB.
Source: University of California - Santa Barbara