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Cheng gets award for new scientists
By SUE WUETCHER
Reporter Editor
Richard Cheng, Jere Solo Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry, has received a $200,000 grant through a new state program designed to recognize and support outstanding scientists and engineers who, early in their careers, show potential for leadership and scientific discovery in the field of biotechnology.
Cheng is one of 10 young researchers sharing the $2 million in awards provided through the James D. Watson Investigator Program. The Watson initiative is part of the $225 million Generating Employment through New York State Science (Gen*NY*sis) program that was created to maximize the potential of the world-class life sciences research being conducted at New York's public, not-for-profit and private academic research institutions.
The grants, which are being awarded over a two-year period, are being channeled through the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR).
The grants from the James D. Watson Investigator Program were awarded to scientists who are performing their research in the life sciences, biomedical sciences or in other life science-enabling disciplines, such as engineering, material science, chemistry, computer science, electronics, physics, bioinformatics, nanotechnologies and applications of microelectronics and micro-electromechanical devices.
Russell W. Bessette, executive director of NYSTAR, said that these "groundbreaking, first-of-its-kind awards" will encourage early-career biotechnology scientists to stay and conduct their "critically important research" in New York State.
"In doing so, these scientists will be positioned to make the important advancements in biotechnology that will lead to the state's future economic growth," Bessette said.
Cheng, who joined the UB faculty this semester, received his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology in 1998 and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania/Dupont CR&D from 1998-2002.
His research focuses on designing sequence-specific, non-natural oligomers—short polymers—with potential applications in biomedical (biomimetrics, pharmaceuticals and bio-materials) and material sciences (supramolecular structures and nanotechnology). Cheng says he is pursuing three research areas:
Stabilizing protein folds with non-natural fluorinated amino acids for potential applications in industrial catalysis, nanofabrication, bio-material and pharmaceutical sciences
Development of bioactive non-natural oligomers as potential pharmaceutical agents
Devising proteins with novel topologies using non-natural linkages for potential development of functional biomimetics and, ultimately, molecular machines.