Sarafan ChEM-H awards six $50,000 grants through inaugural Nucleus Seed Grant Program
The Nucleus at Sarafan ChEM-H houses a collection of scientific experts and advanced instrumentation that typically would be difficult for an academic laboratory to access, often because they may be outside of a research laboratory’s primary focus or because they include techniques or approaches that are typically found only in industry, not academia. The Nucleus aims to bridge these gaps between fields to more rapidly advance chemistry and engineering solutions to improve human health.
To catalyze more collaborations with the Nucleus, Sarafan ChEM-H launched a new seed grant program. Six teams of Stanford researchers have been awarded $50,000 to explore research that enhances our understanding of diseases and advances potential new treatments. “The Nucleus is a unique resource that supercharges basic and translational science at Stanford,” says Professor Carolyn Bertozzi, Baker Family Director of Sarafan ChEM-H. “I am proud to see the Nucleus not only enable innovative research but also help to train the next generation of scientific leaders.”
Sarafan ChEM-H invited the submission of research proposals that encourage collaboration with one of the research areas within the Nucleus—areas like metabolomics, high-throughput screening, and cryo-electron microscopy. The Scientific Directors who lead the research groups in the Nucleus come from a variety of backgrounds with over a century of combined experience in academic and industrial biomedical research, offering an unparalleled opportunity for academic labs at Stanford to use cutting-edge instrumentation and consult with experts in drug discovery, structural biology, assay development, clinical trials, and more. As part of the award requirements, a graduate student or postdoctoral trainee will be paired with one of these experts for one year to complete a proposed project. In this way, researchers will remain involved in every step of the research process, providing a unique learning opportunity for trainees while increasing the chances of project success.
The recipients of the seed grants are listed below.
High-throughput imaging of repetitive DNA to screen small molecules in live cells
Grant Recipient: Nicholas Altemose, Assistant Professor of Genetics
Trainee: Dr. J. Matthew Franklin, Postdoctoral Scholar
Collaboration with: Dr. Bruce Koch, High-Throughput Screening
The Altemose lab has recently revealed that repetitive DNA in the human genome can accumulate key proteins that are known to drive multiple cancers. They will collaborate with the High-Throughput Screening group at the Nucleus to leverage these findings for an imaging screen to identify small molecules that could be further developed into new cancer treatments.
Identifying metabolic changes in old neural stem cells to counter brain decline during aging
Grant Recipient: Anne Brunet, Professor of Genetics
Trainee: Jeeyoon Na, Graduate Student
Collaboration with: Dr. Yuqin Dai, Metabolomics
The Brunet lab will collaborate with the Metabolomics group at the Nucleus to explore why neural stem cells, which produce new neurons, seem to lose this ability as we age. Understanding how to rewire the metabolism of old neural stem cells could offer clues for promoting healthy brain aging, combatting brain decline, and improving the brain’s ability to recover from injury.
Elucidating the structural basis of breast cancer therapeutics
Grant Recipient: Steven Corsello, Assistant Professor of Medicine
Trainee: Michelle Tang, Graduate Student
Collaboration with: Dr. Daniel Fernandez, Macromolecular Structure
The Corsello lab will collaborate with the Macromolecular Structure group at the Nucleus to figure out why a specific molecule that they have discovered is so good at killing certain kinds of breast cancer cells. By figuring out the three-dimensional structure of the protein that their molecule interacts with and pinpointing how that interaction leads to cell death, the group hopes to develop new treatments for metastatic breast cancer.
Taking structure–function to new heights: Systematic, high-throughput, high-resolution cryo-EM of an ideal model enzyme
Grant Recipients: Polly Fordyce, Associate Professor of Genetics and Bioengineering and Dan Herschlag, Professor of Biochemistry
Trainees: Eliel Akinbami, Graduate Student and Fanny Sunden, Life Science Research Associate
Collaboration with: Dr. Haoqing Wang, Cryo-Electron Microscopy
Recent revolutionary advances in AI have made it possible to predict how protein sequence encodes structure, but accurately predicting how protein sequence encodes function remains a grand challenge in biology. While structure prediction was enabled by vast repositories of structural data in the protein structure databank, functional data for many different protein sequences simply do not yet exist. Here, the Fordyce and Herschlag labs will couple new high-throughput enzymology platforms they have developed with the Cryo-EM expertise of the Nucleus to gather the critical structural and functional data required to realize next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms capable of designing new proteins that will benefit human health, whether by treating disease or degrading plastic waste in the environment.
Novel compounds for hypoxic and inflammatory brain injury
Grant Recipient: Anca Pasca, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Trainee: Dr. Dhriti Nagar, Postdoctoral Scholar
Collaboration with: Dr. Adrian Hugenmatter, Protein Engineering
The Pasca lab has discovered a molecule that helps protect the brains of patients who experience hypoxia, or lack of enough oxygen to the brain. The lack of oxygen to the brain is a major reason for stroke-related deaths or long-term disability. In its natural form, this molecule cannot enter the brain from the bloodstream, meaning that it would never make it to the site of injury where it would make a difference for stroke patients. The lab will collaborate with the Protein Engineering group at the Nucleus to design a version of the molecule that can enter the brain, bringing it one step closer to being a neuroprotective therapeutic.
Uncovering the role of lipids in stem cell-mediated stroke recovery
Grant Recipient: Gary Steinberg, Professor of Neurosurgery
Trainee: Dr. Lindsey Druschel, Postdoctoral Scholar
Collaboration with: Dr. Yuqin Dai, Metabolomics
The Steinberg lab will collaborate with the Metabolomics group at the Nucleus to better understand the molecular mechanisms of stroke recovery following stem cell transplantation in the brain. By analyzing the lipid content of rodent blood serum samples collected pre- and post-stem cell transplantation in a controlled experimental setting, the group hopes to uncover new pathways that contribute to recovery and provide foundational knowledge to support the development of future therapies.
