“The science is complicated, but the idea is not,” Watson said. “Biochemistry is at the core of human health, and dysfunction there is often responsible for disease. We will develop new methods to track — both in time and space — where those biochemical processes are happening.”

Associate directors of this COBRE include Prof. Catherine Grimes (chemistry and biochemistry) and Prof. Xinqiao Jia (materials science and engineering, biomedical engineering and biological sciences). Prof. Mary Watson (chemistry and biochemistry) serves as director of the Research Core, overseeing labs being built by the center.

All four members of the center’s leadership are “graduates” of previous COBRE projects on the UD campus, attesting to the powerful nature of these grants, which help to advance scientific research, establish state-of-the-art facilities and develop young faculty into tomorrow’s biomedical research leaders.

The first phase of this work includes projects led by faculty members Ariel Alperstein and Marco Messina, both assistant professors of chemistry and biochemistry; Laure Kayser, assistant professor of materials science and engineering and chemistry and biochemistry; and Austin Keeler, assistant professor of biological sciences.

The scope of their research is extensive.

Alperstein will use two-dimensional, ultrahigh-resolution infrared spectroscopy to understand the roles of amyloid in cardiac disease. Kayser is developing rapid tests for detecting Alzheimer’s disease in blood. Keeler is studying pain and pain perception. Messina aims to develop new sensors based on boron clusters to detect reactive oxygen species and how they tie into neurological pain.

“Ultimately, we will be untangling the biological playbook and providing new opportunities to intervene with therapies,” Grimes said.

The work also will have significant benefits for UD’s broader research enterprise.

“The new COBRE on Multiscale Biomolecular Sensing represents a tremendous opportunity for research at our university,” said Joseph Fox, professor of chemistry and biochemistry and UD’s 2023 Francis Alison Award winner. Fox’s COBRE on Discovery of Chemical Probes and Therapeutic Leads recently was approved for a second and final extension. “The research of the COBRE will impact science from the most fundamental level to the development of applied materials. Just as important, the center will support the careers of early-career scientists and the education of numerous Ph.D. students while developing unique core facilities that are currently lacking in the state of Delaware.”

Grimes, who was a research project lead in the first phase of Fox’s COBRE project, will lead the faculty mentoring focus of this work.

“I was fortunate to receive COBRE support as an assistant professor and I’m excited for the opportunity to ‘pay it forward,’” she said. "Mentoring is a deep professional passion for me. I’ve invested significant time in graduate student mentoring and am eager to apply and expand those skills to develop new mechanisms for faculty mentoring as part of this initiative.”

A primary goal of the program is to help early-career faculty secure independent federal funding, Grimes said.

“I will ensure that each project lead has a network of engaged faculty mentors and a clear set of milestones aligned with timely and competitive proposal submissions,” she said.

Jia is associate director of research for the center, responsible for the review and management of the center’s pilot projects. Mary Watson is director of the Research Core, which includes a new biophysical core facility with instruments for biophysics and biochemistry, a new transgenic rodent core (the only such facility in Delaware) and the High-Throughput Experimentation and Chromatography (HiTEC) facility, which makes it possible to pull complex mixtures of compounds apart and analyze them quickly.

“I will have the opportunity to interact with scientists working across multiple fields to learn what is important to their research and what instrumentation and support will enable their research to be even more impactful,” Mary Watson said. “In collaboration with the staff leading each part of the research core and the other DCMBS leadership, we will facilitate innovations on our campus that will accelerate our pace of biomedical research discoveries.”

The Research Core facilities will greatly expand biomedical research capabilities at UD and in the region, Mary Watson said.

“And each facility will be led by a staff scientist who will help students and other UD researchers use the instrumentation to its fullest capacity,” she said.

Mary Watson knows from personal experience with two previous COBRE projects — one with Prof. Tom Beebe on biomaterials and the other with Fox — how much impact a COBRE can have on early-career faculty. She expects new synergies to emerge for others in UD’s research community.

“I anticipate that the COBRE will not only support their independent programs but also lead to amazing new collaborations across our campus, exponentially increasing the impact of the work,” she said. “These ‘project leads’ are the future of research at UD, and I am confident that they will continue to build UD’s research legacy and impact.”