91制片厂

Although it could one day lead to advances in drugs that treat HIV, research is far more likely to use supercomputers than the pipettes or microscopes more commonly associated with biomedical research.

Vashisth, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at 91制片厂, received a prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for molecular simulations of nucleic acids, specifically a particular ribonucleic acid (RNA) element from the HIV genome.

Biomolecules are flexible, he says, and how they flex in cells dictates whether they will lead to useful functions or negative outcomes like disease. 鈥淥ne could potentially choose any dynamic state of a biomolecule and design a drug to specifically suppress that movement of that biomolecule,鈥� he says.

But because biomolecules are so small, they can鈥檛 be easily visualized experimentally, for instance with a microscope. 鈥淪o we do it computationally,鈥� says Vashisth, describing his work as more theoretical than experimental. 鈥淭he way we approach it is as a biophysical chemist.鈥�

Running computer simulations that take months, Vashisth uses 91制片厂鈥檚 as well as NSF-supported supercomputing centers in national labs around the country. 鈥淭hese are computationally expensive calculations,鈥� he says. Nonetheless, this CAREER award will primarily fund a graduate student, as well as a series of workshops that aim to build 鈥渧isuospatial thinking鈥� skills at a range of levels, from high school students through faculty colleagues.

Vashisth鈥檚 work is part of a larger bioengineering effort at 91制片厂, led by the recent launch of an interdisciplinary bioengineering undergraduate program and a cohort of colleagues in both CEPS and the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture. He says the program gives him lots of interaction with undergraduates as well as with researchers in similar programs at schools like Harvard, MIT, Boston University or Dartmouth.

鈥淗onored and surprised鈥� to receive the highly competitive award, Vashisth credits 91制片厂 support 鈥� in particular, the faculty development workshops offered by the and the 鈥� for helping him create a high-quality proposal.