Congratualations to Dr. Krzyzstof Krajewski of the High-Throughput Peptide Synthesis and Array Facility and Dr. Yen-Yu Ian Shih, director of the Center for Animal MRI (CAMRI) in the Biomedical Research Imaging Center’s Small Animal Imaging Facility! Both are co-PIs for projects funded as through the 2024 Creativty Hub Program. For more information on the 2024 Creativity Hub program and to read about all five winners read the UNC Research Press release!
Dr. Krajewski is a co-PI for:
Leon G. Coleman, School of Medicine, co-PI; Benjamin Vincent, School of Medicine, co-PI; Daniel Dominguez, School of Medicine, co-PI; Brian Kuhlman, School of Medicine, co-PI; Albert Bowers, School of Medicine, co-PI; Krzysztof Krajewski, School of Medicine, co-PI
Research Challenge
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. and requires novel therapeutics. Cancer immune therapies — the process of tagging cancer cells to help the body fight disease — has shown enormous promise in treatment, but is sorely limited by cost, pace, and the inability to fully map a growing tumor. Currently there is no affordable way to fully and rapidly screen for the proteins and antigens at the heart of cutting-edge cancer therapies.
Proposed Solution
The team proposes the development of new technology called RAPHA-Seq, a diagnostic and technology platform that would be a huge leap forward in single-cell proteomics — the ability to understand what’s happening in a tumor cell — and could unlock foundational knowledge about how to therapeutically target tumors. As a sequencing platform, RAPHA-Seq could have broad implications for other vital areas of biomedical science and therapeutic discovery.
Dr. Shih is a co-PI for:
Paul Dayton, Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, co-PI; Gianmarco Pinton, Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, co-PI; Vibhor Krishna, School of Medicine, co-PI; Adam Hantman, School of Medicine, co-PI; Oleg Favorov, School of Medicine; Shawn Hingtgen, Eshelman School of Pharmacy; Yueh Lee, School of Medicine; Yasmeen Rauf, School of Medicine; Ben Philpot, School of Medicine; Daniel Roques, School of Medicine; Ian Shih, School of Medicine; Samarjit Chakraborty, College of Arts and Sciences; Weili Lin, School of Medicine; Jason Mihalik, College of Arts and Sciences
Research Challenge
Neuropsychiatric disorders negatively affect hundreds of millions of people across the globe with often profound negative effects. Current therapies are mostly pharmaceutical but can affect the whole brain and are unable to adjust treatments through feedback control. Other developing therapies, such as deep brain electro-stimulation, can carry risks associated with invasive neurosurgery. There is a critical need to create therapies capable of modulating brain activity without invasive surgery and allowing for feedback control.
Proposed Solution
The team is focused on developing technology for an AI-assisted ultra-sound technology platform for closed-loop adaptive neuromodulation therapies for neurological disorders. This form of focused ultrasound would be incisionless, would not require anesthesia, and could be done outside of a hospital. If achieved, this capacity could usher in a new era of unprecedented treatment capabilities, brain‐machine interfaces, and understanding of neuroscience. The ability to treat the whole brain with real time feedback will be a game-changer in clinical medicine.