Five research teams selected for Carolina’s Creativity Hubs funding

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023-2024 Creativity Hubs seed funding awards.

The Creativity Hubs awards have transformed research at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill by enabling and empowering interdisciplinary teams to collaborate on solutions that matter. For seven years, these awards have united diverse experts and sparked innovative solutions to pressing challenges, improving lives across North Carolina and beyond.

This year, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) has teamed up with the North Carolina Collaboratory to enable even more teams who are making advancements in fields like health care and clean energy. Each team will receive funding to execute their project over the next two years, for a combined total of $1.87 million.

“Through the generous support of the North Carolina General Assembly via the NC Collaboratory, we are able to award five project teams with seed funding this year – the most we’ve ever awarded in a single round,” said Vice Chancellor for Research Penny Gordon-Larsen. “Research is at the heart of innovation, and through Creativity Hubs, we’re fostering a dynamic ecosystem where interdisciplinary teams are pushing the boundaries of knowledge to create incredible applications, which is essential for creating a healthier, more sustainable future for North Carolina.”

Winning teams are working on impactful solutions like: a novel cancer diagnostic and technology platform; an AI-assisted ultrasound technology-enabled adaptive neuroscience therapy to treat neuropsychiatric disorders; internal microcapsule pharmacies to treat chronic diseases; portable, low-cost medical screening technology; and better, safer energy sources.

“These projects are directly tied to the Collaboratory’s mission of funding research that addresses our state’s environmental and public health concerns,” said NC Collaboratory Executive Director Jeff Warren. “By uniting top talent and resources, we’re not only enabling the exploration of bold ideas and practical solutions that will have a lasting impact on our state, we’re also supporting the University’s commitment to moving applied science technologies into real-world applications.”

This year’s winning projects are:

Leon G. Coleman, School of Medicine, co-PI; Benjamin Vincent, School of Medicine, co-PI; Daniel Dominguez, School of Medicine, co-PI; Brian Kuhlman, School of Medicine, co-PI; Albert Bowers, School of Medicine, co-PI; Krzysztof Krajewski, School of Medicine, co-PI

Research Challenge

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. and requires novel therapeutics. Cancer immune therapies — the process of tagging cancer cells to help the body fight disease — has shown enormous promise in treatment, but is sorely limited by cost, pace, and the inability to fully map a growing tumor. Currently there is no affordable way to fully and rapidly screen for the proteins and antigens at the heart of cutting-edge cancer therapies.

Proposed Solution

The team proposes the development of new technology called RAPHA-Seq, a diagnostic and technology platform that would be a huge leap forward in single-cell proteomics — the ability to understand what’s happening in a tumor cell — and could unlock foundational knowledge about how to therapeutically target tumors. As a sequencing platform, RAPHA-Seq could have broad implications for other vital areas of biomedical science and therapeutic discovery.

Paul Dayton, Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, co-PI; Gianmarco Pinton, Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, co-PI; Vibhor Krishna, School of Medicine, co-PI; Adam Hantman, School of Medicine, co-PI; Oleg Favorov, School of Medicine; Shawn Hingtgen, Eshelman School of Pharmacy; Yueh Lee, School of Medicine; Yasmeen Rauf, School of Medicine; Ben Philpot, School of Medicine; Daniel Roques, School of Medicine; Ian Shih, School of Medicine; Samarjit Chakraborty, College of Arts and Sciences; Weili Lin, School of Medicine; Jason Mihalik, College of Arts and Sciences

Research Challenge

Neuropsychiatric disorders negatively affect hundreds of millions of people across the globe with often profound negative effects. Current therapies are mostly pharmaceutical but can affect the whole brain and are unable to adjust treatments through feedback control. Other developing therapies, such as deep brain electro-stimulation, can carry risks associated with invasive neurosurgery. There is a critical need to create therapies capable of modulating brain activity without invasive surgery and allowing for feedback control.

Proposed Solution

The team is focused on developing technology for an AI-assisted ultra-sound technology platform for closed-loop adaptive neuromodulation therapies for neurological disorders. This form of focused ultrasound would be incisionless, would not require anesthesia, and could be done outside of a hospital. If achieved, this capacity could usher in a new era of unprecedented treatment capabilities, brain‐machine interfaces, and understanding of neuroscience. The ability to treat the whole brain with real time feedback will be a game-changer in clinical medicine.

Ronit Freeman, College of Arts and Sciences, PI; Pietro Dotti, School of Medicine; Barbara Savoldo, School of Medicine; ; Abraham Vazquez-Guardado, NC State University; Michael Daniele, NC State University; Soumya Rahima Benhabbour, Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering; Greg Forest, College of Arts and Sciences; Sorin Mitran, College of Arts and Sciences; Charles Gersbach, Duke University; Richard Loeser, School of Medicine; Nicholas J. Shaheen, School of Medicine; Shehzad Sheikh, School of Medicine; Ryan Balfour Sartor, School of Medicine; Chirag S. Desai, School of Medicine; John Buse, School of Medicine

Research Challenge

Poor medication adherence is a global issue that especially affects patients with chronic diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disorder, diabetes, or cancer, which require frequent and complex treatment plans. In the U.S., poor treatment adherence leads to approximately 125,000 deaths per year — as many as breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers combined — resulting in an estimated $300 billion in health care costs. Delivering required daily treatments on-demand and without painful injections would transform chronic disease care.

Proposed Solution

The team seeks to eliminate the need for recurrent trips to the hospital for injections or transfusions that are frequently part of chronic disease treatment plans. ALTER is a living pharmacy — an implant designed to produce therapeutic antibodies in the patient, at the right time, and at the right dose. Encapsulated cells within the living pharmacy will produce therapies by sensing, responding, modifying, or degrading signals to continuously deliver the precise therapeutic dosage that a patient needs without painful needles and without requiring patients to remember to take their medications. The technology has extensive potential for use in several chronic diseases.

Yueh Lee, School of Medicine, co-PI; Otto Zhou, College of Arts and Sciences, co-PI; Jianping Lu, College of Arts and Sciences, co-PI; Marc Niethammer, College of Arts and Sciences, co-PI; Youzuo Lin, School of Data Science and Society, co-PI; Yifei Lou, College of Arts and Sciences, School of Data Science and Society, co-PI; Huaxiu Yao, College of Arts and Sciences, School of Data Science and Society; James Sivak, School of Medicine; James Gruden, School of Medicine

Research Challenge

Health outcomes for U.S. populations living in rural areas — about 20% of all Americans — have markedly trailed behind urban populations, particularly in surviving cardiac and pulmonary diseases. Early screening for such diseases is critical to saving lives. However, a contributing factor, as identified by public reporting, is the lack of medical diagnostic imaging services in rural and underserved areas, and the life-saving interventions they enable.

Proposed Solution

The team’s goal is to develop an easily transportable system called Carolina CarbON Nanotube Enabled sCreening Tomosynthesis (CONNECT) that will enable low-cost screening at community gathering places, business, or even a patient’s home. The CONNECT system will be based on the carbon nanotube x-ray sources invented at UNC-Chapel Hill, combined with advanced reconstruction and automated evaluation algorithms. This combination will reduce costs and provide automated large language model report generation for immediate patient feedback after imaging.

Wei You, College of Arts & Sciences, co-PI; Theo Dingemans, College of Arts and Sciences, co-PI; James Cahoon, College of Arts and Sciences, co-PI; Frank Leibfarth, College of Arts and Sciences, co-PI; Megan Jackson, College of Arts and Sciences, co-PI; Alexander Miller, Sustainable Energy Research Center, Senior Personnel

Research Challenge

Lithium-ion batteries have transformed our world, powering everything from smartphones to electric vehicles. However, their reliance on scarce, costly materials and their potential for environmental harm create limitations for their use. This is a particular issue in North Carolina, as forever chemical contamination was recently found proximate to battery processing sites in the state. To meet the growing demand for clean energy, developing safer, more sustainable battery technologies is necessary.

Proposed Solution

The team will leverage North Carolina’s existing status as an epicenter of lithium mining and processing and will bridge fundamental science with technology development in lithium-ion batteries to establish the UNC-Chapel Hill Center for Energy Storage (UNC-CES). Their goal is to advance safe and stable next-generation battery materials as they aim to develop new classes of carbon-based, solid-state lithium-ion batteries. The center, including its world-class faculty and facilities, will address some of the most pressing concerns for this critical technology and build a portfolio of intellectual property in battery technology while supporting a discovery ecosystem.

About Creativity Hubs and the OVCR

The Creativity Hubs funding program was developed by the OVCR to assemble teams of researchers from diverse disciplines to tackle major societal challenges and leverage additional support from external sponsors. Past awardees have made significant inroads across a variety of critical areas. For example, they have developed novel therapeutics and biologically inspired AI platforms, advanced solar energy solutions, addressed tick-borne illness in NC, and created the infectious disease drug discovery platform known as READDI.

Awardees receive proposal development assistance from the Office of Research Development within the OVCR to pursue large-scale, follow-on awards that build on the program’s funding. To date, winning Creativity Hubs projects have stimulated exciting results with significant return on investment, with tens of millions in extramural funding.

The OVCR accelerates research excellence and impact and drives innovation by supporting research with high potential to make tangible impact on society and especially on communities and people across the state. With partners across the University, like the NC Collaboratory, the OVCR ensures Carolina’s research discoveries and knowledge create value for the people of North Carolina and across the world.