Congratulations to Brian Ahmer, PhD, Professor, Department of Microbial Infection & Immunity, College of Medicine, Munir Akkaya, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, and Ross Larue, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics, College of Medicine. Each are recipients of IDI Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grants in the amount of $25,000 for their projects as follows:
Dr. Brian Ahmer, PI: Optimizing inhibitors of the Salmonella FraB deglycase, a novel narrow spectrum drug target. Interdisciplinary team collaborators (Co-PIs): Venkat Gopalan, PhD, Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, College of Arts and Sciences, Mark Mitton-Fry, PhD, Assistant Professor, Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy.
Dr. Munir Akkaya, PI: Deciphering the impact of diet induced obesity on B cell mediated immune response against pathogens. Interdisciplinary team collaborator (Co-PI): Jacob Yount, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Microbial Infection & Immunity, College of Medicine.
Dr. Ross Larue, PI: Development of small molecule HIV-1 capsid probes. Interdisciplinary team collaborator (Co-PI): Daniel Adu-Ampratwum, PhD, Research Scientist, Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy.