Biochemistry and molecular biology professor receives Huck Innovative and Transformational Seed Fund grant

Three potentially high-impact, high-risk research projects have been selected to receive seed funding for the latest round of the Huck Innovative and Transformational Seed Fund initiative. One of these projects is led by Jean-Paul Armache, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, with support from collaborator Sung Hyun Cho, assistant research professor and director of the Cryo-Electron Microscopy Core Facility.
 
“To do something really new and groundbreaking in science, you have to take a chance on a risky idea," said Patrick Drew, interim director of the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. "The goal of the HITS seed fund program is to give support to our faculty to do work that is not along a well-worn path and can have a big impact.”
 
Designed to directly support novel, potentially high-impact projects in any area of the life sciences, the HITS Fund serves as a launchpad for innovative ideas. Proposals do not require the preliminary data or existing work often needed to attract immediate support from conventional funding sources.
 
Armache’s project, “Development of standardized additives for predictable, reliable, and reproducible electron cryo-microscopy purposes," aims to improve the difficult and time consuming process of freezing samples for electron cryo-microscopy characterization.
 
Noting that the stochastic and unpredictable nature of current methods for optimal freezing results, Armache and Cho will investigate proteins from extremophiles — specifically, organisms living in arctic conditions — to tackle dehydration, high radiation and low temperatures. By exploring the usability of these proteins in cryo-EM grid preparation, the researchers aim to create optimal and reproducible freezing results that lower costs, speed up sample preparation and improve reproducibility.
 
To learn more about the HITS program, including descriptions of past projects and application guidelines for future rounds of funding, visit the Huck Institutes website.