Emory Vaccine Center
Emory Announces $100,000 Max Cooper Prize in Immunology
Emory University has created a new prize in honor of Dr. Max Cooper, one of the world’s most influential scientists in the field of immunology.
Dr. Cooper, who is 90, joined Emory in 2008 and is a professor with the Emory Vaccine Center and Emory University School of Medicine.
He is credited with a string of landmark discoveries that now provide a framework for understanding how white blood cells normally combat infections and how they go awry to produce leukemia, lymphomas, and autoimmune diseases.
Dr. Nadine Rouphael Received IDCRC Investigator of the Year Award
Nadine Rouphael, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Infectious Diseases Division of the Emory School of Medicine and Executive director of the Hope Clinic, received the Investigator of the Year Award for the Infectious Diseases Clinical Resources Consortium Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit (IDCRC VTEU). Dr. Rouphael is VTEU investigator who has made exceptional contributions to research as it relates to the VTEU and IDCRC missions.
Dr. Rouphael has also been promoted to Professor, effective September 1, 2023.
News in the Day Lab
Cheryl Day, PhD, has received the Department of Microbiology & Immunology Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Award in June 2023. Dr. Day was also selected for the 2023 Emory SOM Research Appreciation Day.
New hires for the Day lab include Sara Belauret, Senior Research Specialist, and Tempel Dingman, Research Specialist.
Biological Discovery through Chemical Innovation
Congratulations to the Year 4 BDCI Accelerator Grant Recipients!
BDCI announced the recipients of the Year 4 BDCI Accelerator Grants. These grants aim to further cultivate the network of Emory researchers working at the critical intersection of chemistry, biology, and human health, and fund innovative, cross-disciplinary projects that align with the mission of the BDCI.
This year’s proposals span three major units at Emory, seven individual departments, multiple therapeutic areas, and a diverse set of technological approaches. These five groups will receive $40,000 over the next year to complete the aims outlined in their proposal, with the ultimate goal of providing the preliminary data necessary to apply for larger, extramural funding. The 2023 projects — along with their principal investigators and co-investigators — that received Accelerator Grants are:
Steven Goudy + Yuhong Du: Developing a high-throughput assay to identify p70 S6K activators to induce pediatric human osteoblast differentiation
Xu Liu + Mingji Dai: Structure-based design and optimization of selective glucocorticoids for inflammatory disorders
Monika Raj + Jennifer Spangle: Chemical sensors for imaging cellular aldehydes in live cells
Rabindra Tirouvanziam + Dharmeshkumar Patel: Computational drug discovery and testing of HDAC11 inhibitors/agonists for innate immunotherapy
Bill Wuest + Philip Rather: Repurposing Salmeterol to treat resistant acinetobacter baumannii infections
Applications for the next round of Accelerator Grants will open Fall 2023. Check back HERE for updates.
Meet the inaugural cohort of BDCI Trainee Seed Grant recipients
The inaugural BDCI Trainee Symposium was held on Friday, March 31st at Convocation Hall. With more than 50 attendees across the day’s sessions, it was an exciting forum to learn about fellow BDCI trainees’ research, connect with new people, and come up with exciting, new research projects! Leading off the day’s events was a keynote address by Maddie Sofia, founding host of the NPR daily science podcast, Short Wave. Maddie shared an inspiring talk focused on strategic and inclusive science communication, in which she shared the importance of centering diverse voices in science communication as well as practical tips on how to engage in this work in our respective scientific endeavors. Learn more about Maddie and her work here.
The capstone event of the day was a brainstorming session in which trainees could network, match up, and then come up with new, innovative research projects. Following the Symposium, teams had the opportunity to draft a proposal and submit their projects for seed funding. Following a rigorous review process in which each proposal received scoring and feedback from a diverse panel of faculty members, we are excited to announce that 3 projects were selected for funding!
Read more about these exciting projects below and save the date for next year’s BDCI Trainee Symposium: Friday, January 26, 2024. Email bdci@emory.edu if you would like to be involved in planning.