Our Fantastic Future Fellows!
- Post by: CIPPS
- 15 September 2022
- Comments off
Congratulations to CIPPS research fellow Dr Conan Wang (UQ) and Associate Investigator Dr Christoph Nitsche (ANU) who were awarded ARC Future Fellowship grants this week.
Conan will receive $840,000 over four years for his project Peptides and Proteins for Fighting Pests and Protecting the Environment. The aim of this project is to enable the development of eco-friendly peptides and proteins for use in agriculture.
Current agricultural practices often involve molecules that have unintended harmful side effects and are unsustainable. Conan will work to develop platform technologies for the design of new, safe peptides and proteins based on molecules found in Nature. The hope is that this project will lead to better methods of protecting biodiversity and food security that will reduce our environmental footprint and bring economic benefits.
Christoph has been granted $803,116 over four years for his project Time to shine for constrained peptides as next-generation pharmaceuticals. Christoph’s vision is to improve the design, synthesis, and screening of peptide-based pharmaceuticals.
Constrained peptides are known to be excellent drug candidates, but their full potential has not yet been unleashed. This is partly because current methods for their generation and screening are laborious, expensive, and often incompatible with the systems used in pharmaceutical industries. Christoph will work to improve these methods by leveraging recent advancements in chemistry and molecular biology.
It is expected that this project will lead to reliable and cost-effective technologies for the rapid production of biologically active molecules for future targeted use in human and agricultural pharmaceuticals.
The ARC Future Fellowships are awarded to outstanding mid-career researchers who are working towards finding solutions for key industry challenges and training the next generation of researchers. Selection is highly competitive and we extend our warmest congratulations to both Conan and Christoph!