DELAWARE: Delaware INBRE researcher earns $1.1M NSF CAREER Award to develop next-gen gene editing tools
Hidden in the soil of backyards around the world, yet-to-be-discovered enzymes could be holding the key to improved gene therapies that could cure the most debilitating diseases plaguing modern society.
Thanks to the University of Delaware College of Engineering’s Kevin Solomon, it may be an undergraduate student who discovers the enzyme (or enzymes) that changes the world. But their search is just one part of a broad effort to pursue a new avenue for improving modern-day biomolecular engineering tools.
Solomon, a synthetic biology expert and assistant professor in UD’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was recently awarded about $1.1 million in funding for this work from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program, one of the most prestigious awards a junior faculty member can receive.
Solomon is one of Delaware INBRE's new Pilot Project Investigators.
“The genomes of bacteria and other cells are simply a collection of genes (like words) made up of individual nucleotides (genetic alphabet),” Solomon said. “We want to develop technology that allows us to edit genomes or rewrite specific letters of that message to cure diseases or make economical biofuels without having to rewrite the whole page.”
The award will support five years of research and a new educational program, in partnership with Purdue University. By working with undergraduate students at these two universities, and potentially also with African citizens attending a unique graduate program at Purdue, the crowdsourced research element of this cross-collaborative effort could have international impact.
“This is a way to bring the excitement of research and development to students just starting down that path, who may someday become researchers and make groundbreaking discoveries themselves,” said Kari Clase, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue who worked alongside Solomon before he joined the faculty at UD.