News Release

INDIANAPOLIS — Three faculty members at the School of Science at IUPUI — Yongming Deng, Sébastien Laulhé and Ian Webb — will receive grants totaling $5.4 million over the next five years from the National Institutes of Health.

The awards are a part of the NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Science’s Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award, or MIRA, program. The awards are designed to provide researchers with greater stability and flexibility to enhance scientific productivity and the chances of important breakthroughs.

All three individual awards are united in their focus on potentially addressing challenges in human health through chemistry. The funded projects include studying proteins currently regarded as potential drug targets in the treatment of neurodegenerative disease; creating new chemical catalysts for use in drug development that are more sustainable and affordable than those currently in use; and expanding the medical applications of molecules currently found in anti-cancer and psychoactive drugs.

“I’m pleased to see the potentially life-changing research of Ian, Yongming and Sébastien — and our Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology — recognized through the support of the NIH,” said John F. DiTusa, dean of the School of Science. “These awards follow a record-breaking year of funding at the School of Science in 2023 and present a tremendous start to our 2024 campaign.”

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