Announcing the Latest Teams Participating in the Sprout Program
The Sprout Program is excited to announce the new projects and teams selected for this year's funding cycle. Supported by the Provost’s Office and the Office of Technology Licensing (OTL), the Sprout Program aims to advance technologies with commercial potential developed within the Division of Science by faculty, students, postdocs, and staff. Each year, the program allocates up to $100,000 across multiple projects to help foster innovation and facilitate the journey from research to market. These teams are working on projects that show promise as commercializable technologies that can become tomorrow’s life-saving drugs, transform industries to be more sustainable, or serve as enabling technologies for future researchers.
Ranging from novel potential treatments for tuberculosis to improved electric vehicle performance, these technological and biomedical breakthroughs reflect the diversity of skills, research interests, and industries of Brandeis’ world-class faculty and graduate students.
Meet the teams, and learn more about their work:
Identification of Inhibitors against a Novel Target in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Prof Liz Hedstrom and student Nicole Kopetz are screening a small molecule library to find inhibitors that can target a newly discovered tuberculosis drug target. The project could significantly impact the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, which is a leading cause of death worldwide.
circRNAs as Environmental Stress and Life Experience Markers
Prof Sebastian Kadener, along with students The Nandar Su and Japhy Theobald are using circular RNAs to ascertain the life history and environmental stress impacts on insects. These markers can show whether an insect has experienced stress-related physical changes on the molecular level. By understanding how our cells and genetic material can be altered by stress, the team hopes to identify circRNAs which can be used as stress biomarkers.
Hsp90 Inhibitor Screening Assay Development
Prof Timothy Street and student Tara Azam are investigating Hsp90 inhibitors as potential cancer treatments. Hsp90 is crucial for many cancer-causing proteins, making it a target for anti-cancer drugs. However, many existing inhibitors have failed in clinical trials due to inefficacy and toxicity. The team has optimized an inhibitor-screening platform based on a competitive assay to identify lead inhibitor candidates and they will further perform in vitro and in vivo assays to identify high-affinity inhibitors that can be better anti-cancer drugs.
New Molecular Therapeutics for Inflammatory Liver Diseases
Professor Hao Xu and students Dakang Zhang, Zixiang Jiang, and Le Yin are targeting the High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1) protein, a key factor in diseases such as alcoholic fatty liver disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and injuries related to drug use or liver surgeries. Recently, certain complex sugars called heparan sulfate octadecasaccharides have shown potential in protecting the liver by targeting HMGB1. The project combines advanced chemical techniques to create new varieties of these stereo-specific sugars, aiming to develop effective new treatments for inflammatory liver diseases.
CYPselect: A New Approach to Inhibition of Medically Important Cytochrome P450s
Professor Tom Pochapsky and his student Talia Lazar are working towards a new strategy that focuses on creating specific inhibitors tailored to block only the harmful Cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs) using their natural substrates and a type of chemical called isonitriles. Such inhibitors will prevent non-selective inhibition of other CYPs and could lead to safer and more effective treatments for various diseases. The validity of this method is backed by published research and patent applications.
Solar Thermal Batteries: Elevating Electric Vehicle Performance in Cold Climates
The team composed of Professor Grace Han and students Anurag Mukherjee, Han Nguyen, and Subhayan Chakraborty, aim to improve electric vehicle battery performance in cold weather and increase driving range. This project utilizes recyclable photoactive compounds that can store solar energy as heat, thereby enhancing battery efficiency without additional power consumption.
Developing Pheromone-based Mosquito Biocontrol Strategies
Professors Paul Garrity, Joanne Yew of University of Hawaii, Manoa, Shruti Shankar, and Spencer Realejo are exploring the use of pheromones, a species-specific and environmentally friendly alternative, to control insects. By employing advanced techniques to analyze the chemicals insects produce, this project aims to identify potential sex pheromones. Although this study primarily targets mosquitoes, the findings could be broadly applicable to other insects as well.
Cell Matrix Innovations
Michael Norton and John Berezney are working on a project aimed at developing a cutting-edge 3D cell culture platform that simulates natural cell environments more accurately. This could potentially transform drug testing and regenerative medicine.
The teams are set to make significant contributions to their respective fields and to transform innovative ideas into tangible solutions. Updates on their progress and information about future opportunities within the Sprout Program will be shared as they become available.