COBRE
Discovery of Molecular Probes and Therapeutic Leads

An NIH Center of Biomedical Research Excellence

News

June 2024. Yanbao Yu, director of proteomics in the University of Delaware’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has developed a simplified method for preparing protein samples for proteomics analysis that is quick, easy-to-use, inexpensive and universally compatible with other parts of the process.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2024/june/ud-method-protein-analysis-precision-medicine-proteomics-yanbao-yu/?utm_source=allstaff&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weeklyUpdate061224

May 2024. Phase II graduate Aditya Kunjapur wins the 2024 BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation.
https://engr.udel.edu/news/2024/05/prof-kunjapur-wins-2024-bioinnovation-institute-science-prize-for-innovation/

March 2024. Phase I investigator, April Kloxin, has been named to the College of Fellows of The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2024/march/april-kloxin-aimbe-fellow-materials-science-chemical-engineering/

January 2024. Phase I & II graduates, April Kloxin and Cathy Fromen, are using an advanced ‘bioprinter’ to help them study and test new therapeutics.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2024/january/april-kloxin-inventia-bioprinter-cell-organ-culture-therapeutics/

December 2023. Project Director, Joseph Fox, elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2023/december/joseph-fox-national-academy-of-inventors/

November 2023. Project Director, Joseph Fox, recognized with UD’s highest faculty honor.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2023/november/joseph-fox-chemistry-francis-alison-award/

May 2023. Phase II supplement investigator Jodi Hadden-Perilla awarded NSF Career Award for virus studies and assistive technology for the blind. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2023/may/jodi-hadden-perilla-virus-computational-biophysical-chemistry/

May 2023. Phase II graduate Aditya Kunjapur creates bacteria that can synthesize an unnatural amino acid. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2023/may/amino-acid-unnatural-para-nitro-l-phenylalanine-escherichia-coli-bioengineering-vaccines-therapeutics-immunology/

March 2023. Phase I graduate Mary P. Watson receives 2023  American Chemical Society (ACS) Catalysis Lectureship for the Advancement of Catalytic Science. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2023/march/catalysis-award-2023-acs-mary-watson/

April 2023. Phase I graduate Catherine L. Grimes received the 2023 Horace S. Isbell Award from the American Chemistry Society’s Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry and Chemical Glycobiology.

March 2023. Phase II graduate Catherine Fromen received an NSF CAREER award to study 3D-printed lattices for testing inhaled medicines.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2023/march/cathy-fromen-national-science-foundation-career-3d-printing-lung-model-engineering/

February 2023. Phase II investigators Juan Perilla and Joshua Neunuebel named Mangone Young Scholars at the University of Delaware.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2023/february/mangone-scholars-josh-neunuebel-juan-perilla/

October 2022. A tool developed by Joseph Fox was among the scientific advances cited by the Nobel Committee for Chemistry as it announced its 2022 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry on Wednesday, Oct. 5.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2022/october/nobel-prize-chemistry-related-joseph-fox/

September 2022. Phase II investigator, Aditya Kunjapur, receives NIH Director’s New Innovator Award for his project entitled Boosting efficacy of oral vaccine candidates by enabling spore display of nitrated antigens.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2022/october/aditya-kunjapur-national-institutes-health-innovator-award-vaccines-bioengineering/

August 2022. Phase I graduate Catherine L. Grimes, professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is the recipient of the 2022 Horace S. Isbell Award from the American Chemical Society.
Donald Watson, also a Phase I graduate, is the winner of the 2022 Delaware Section Award of the American Chemical Society.

May 2022. Phase II investigator Aditya Kunjapur receives prestigious early career awards for his biosynthetic research from both the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR).
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2022/may/engineering-synthetic-biology-kunjapur-awards-2022/

December 2021. Phase I graduate Catherine L. Grimes produces powerful new tools for understanding the immune system.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2021/december/chemistry-biology-immunology-peptidoglycans-catherine-grimes/

November 2021. Phase II investigator Aditya Kunjapur was awarded the 2021 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Langer Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2021/november/aditya-kunjapur-langer-award-vaccine-research/

November 2021. Phase II investigator Juan Perilla develops a new high-precision model of the HIV capsid. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2021/november/hiv-capsid-juan-perilla-science-advances/

October 2021. Phase II investigator Catherine Fromen awarded $2M NIH MIRA grant to study how medicines overcome mucosal barriers in the body. 
https://engr.udel.edu/news/2021/10/delivery-of-medicine-in-the-body/

July 2021. Phase II investigator Aditya Kunjapur and collaborators report advances in biological containment. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2021/july/aditya-kunjapur-biosecurity-containment-engineered-microbes/

October 2020. Phase II investigator Juan Perilla and team are advancing understanding of the structure and function of the protein “shell” encasing the viral genome of Ebola and other viruses. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2020/october/ebola-virus-nucleocapsid-molecular-dynamics-juan-perilla/

September 2020. Phase I faculty hire, Shuo Wei, awarded $1.8M NIH R01 grant to study human birth defects caused by genetic mutations. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2020/september/shuo-wei-biological-sciences-craniofacial-development-genetic-mutation/

September 2020. Phase II investigators Cathy Fromen and Aditya Kunjapur named to The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) 2020 “35 Under 35” list. https://engr.udel.edu/news/2020/09/ud-engineers-make-35-under-35-list/

August 2020. Phase II was awarded, extending the award for 5 more years with additional funding of $11.9M. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2020/november/biomedical-research-cobre-joseph-fox-infectious-disease-cancer/

March 2020. Phase II investigator Juan Perilla awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to study the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2020/march/covid-research-supercomputer-simulations-juan-perilla-jodi-hadden-perilla/

October 2019. Phase I graduate Eric Bloch received a research award from the Department of Energy entitled Methane and Hydrogen Storage with Cage-Based Composite Materials.

September 2019. Phase I investigator Donald Watson publishes new findings that could streamline development and production of small-molecule pharmaceuticals.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2019/september/indoline-scaffold-heck-reaction-catalysis-donald-watson-bioactive-nobel/

August 2019. Phase I investigator April Kloxin received the prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award for her project entitled Unraveling Fibrosis with Dynamic Microenvironments and Molecular Tools. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2019/october/april-kloxin-NIH-national-institutes-health-Directors-New-Innovator-Award/

August 2019. Phase I graduate Yvette Yien received an NIH R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award for Early Stage Investigators for her project entitled Regulation of Heme Synthesis by Mitochondrial Proteins.

August 2019. Phase I graduate Catherine Grimes will be the recipient of the David Y. Gin New Investigator Award from the American Chemical Society in 2020.

May 2019. Phase I graduate Mary Watson received an NIH R35 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA)  entitled Harnessing Alkyl Amines and Alkyl Alcohols in Cross-Coupling Reactions.

April 2019. Phase I graduate April Kloxin develops educational kiosk at the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2019/april/april-kloxin-delaware-museum-of-natural-history/

March 2019. Phase I graduate Joel Rosenthal develops new weapon to fight triple-negative breast cancer. https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2019/march/light-activated-breast-cancer-therapy/

February 2019. PI Joseph Fox’s NIH R01 proposal, Toolkit for Fast, Multipurpose and Inducible Bioorthogonal Chemistry, has been selected for funding by NIGMS.

January 2019.  PI Joseph Fox received a new research award from The Delaware Bioscience Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) program (State of Delaware).

December 2018. PI Joseph Fox received a research award from Pfizer entitled Impacting Chemical Biology through Synthetic Excellence.

November 2018. Phase I graduates Donald Watson and Mary Watson received a major award from Unidel foundation for core facility enhancement entitled High-Throughput Instrumentation Core to Accelerate Discovery.

November 2018.  Pilot investigator Ramona Neunuebel received a new NIH 21 award from NIAID entitled Characterization of Legionella effectors targeting host membrane compartments.

November 2018.  Phase I investigator Eric Bloch received a University of Delaware Research Foundation Award entitled Electrochemical Synthesis of Metal-Organic Frameworks.

October 2018.  Phase I graduate Mary P. Watson received a research award from Pfizer entitled Transforming Alkyl Amines to Alkyl Arenes: Sp2/Sp3 Cross-Coupling of Alkyl Amines to Aryl Halides/Carboxylic Acids and Its Application to Parallel Medicinal Chemistry.

August 2018.  Project Investigator Yvette Yien received an NIH R03 award from NIDDK entitled Control of Porphyrin Synthesis by ClpX: a Novel Regulatory Node in Erythroid Heme Synthesishas 

May 2018. Phase I graduate Catherine L. Grimes honored with a 2018 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.

October 2017. Phase I investigator Catherine L. Grimes received UD’s 2017 Gerard J. Mangone Young Scholars Award 2017.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2017/october/mangone-award-grimes/

August 2017. Phase I investigator Catherine L. Grimes received a 2017 Young Investigator Award from the ACS Infectious Diseases journal of the American Chemical Society.

May 2017. Catherine L. Grimes’ team invents scientific method to track cells implicated in immune diseases.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2017/may/tracking-cells-in-immune-diseases/

February 2017. Phase I investigator Catherine Grimes wins Sloan Research Fellowship.
https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2017/february/sloan-research-fellowship/

February 2016. Phase I investigator Catherine Grimes wins NSF Career Award.
https://www1.udel.edu/udaily/2016/feb/nsf-career-award-022416.html

March 2014. Phase I investigator Donald Watson received a $1.47 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study new reactions for use in the production of medicines and pharmaceuticals.
https://www1.udel.edu/udaily/2014/mar/organic-molecules-031714.html