Faculty Awarded Technology Development Grants by President’s Office

These IALS faculty are among the recipients of $200,000 in seed funding from the UMass system’s Technology Development Fund:

• “Prototype Protein Nanowire-Based Sensor,” Derek Lovley, microbiology, and Jun Yao, electrical and computer engineering. The team is making a wearable sensor for non-invasive, real-time monitoring of a wide range of biomarkers that help to diagnose chronic medical conditions.

• “Liver-targeted delivery for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis,” Hang Xiao, food science, and S. Thai Thayumanavan, chemistry. The project aims to develop a unique system to deliver thyromimetics—compounds that mimic the action of thyroid hormones or the thyroid gland—to the liver to treat non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, a significant and growing problem with no approved treatment.

• “Development of potent, selective caspase-6 inhibitors for treatment of neurodegeneration,” Jeanne Hardy, chemistry. The Hardy lab is developing and testing inhibitors for a protein called caspase-6 that is involved in both Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases.