Technology Development Seed Grants Awarded to Five Outstanding Projects

The Beckman Center recently awarded nearly $1.1 million in Technology Development Seed Grants to five teams of investigators.

“The seed grant submissions this round were truly impressive,” says Lucy Shapiro, PhD, director of the Beckman Center. “The review committee and I were impressed by yet another exceptional pool of research proposals.”

The Technology Development Seed Grant program provides funding to pairs or groups of investigators from different disciplines who propose risky, but potentially high-payoff experiments in technology innovation.

The Beckman Center has conducted the highly competitive program since 2002, funding projects in a broad array of scientific areas. To date, more than 60 projects have been funded, resulting in promising outcomes that include published papers, grants and patents, and media coverage. Each recipient team receives funding of $100,000 per year, for a two-year period.

This year’s grant-receiving projects are: 

• A New Tool for High-Density Thalamic Neural Signal Recording and Modulation for Neurological and Neuropsychiatric Disease Diagnosis and Treatment
  • Zhenan Bao, PhD; Department of Chemical Engineering
  • Vivek P. Buch, MD; Department of Neurosurgery

• A Proteomic Biosensor Platform for Multiplexed Readout of Endogenous Kinase Activity With Subcellular Resolution
  • Ruth Huttenhain, PhD; Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
  • Alice Y. Ting, PhD; Departments of Genetics and Biology

• All-Optical Platform for Probing Single-Cell Neuropeptidergic Connectivity in the Central Nervous System
  • Rongxin Fang, PhD; Department of Neurosurgery
  • Kang Shen, PhD; Department of Biology

• Enabling Cryo-ET of Tissue-Derived Specimens via Custom Grids and Needle Biopsies
  • Daniel Bernstein, MD; Department of Pediatrics - Cardiology
  • Peter Dahlberg, PhD; Department of Structural Biology and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
  • Alexander Dunn, PhD; Department of Chemical Engineering

• Innovating Far-UVC LED Technologies For Scalable Pandemic Prevention
  • Jason Andrews, MD; Department of Medicine - Med/Infectious Diseases
  • Srabanti Chowdhury, PhD; Department of Electrical Engineering
  • Daniel Congreve, PhD; Department of Electrical Engineering
  • Stephen P. Luby, MD; Department of Medicine - Med/Infectious Diseases