IBB Announces FY25 Seed Grant Recipients

IBB is excited to announce the awardees of the FY25 IBB Interdisciplinary Research Seed Grant Program. Designed to stimulate interdisciplinary research, IBB proudly supports seed grant programs that provide funding opportunities for bio-related breakthroughs.

Amirali Aghazadeh and Raquel Lieberman were selected for funding for their proposal, "Harnessing Generative AI to Identify Mutations Causing Early-Onset Glaucoma.”

Aghazadeh is an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and also program faculty of the Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, and Bioengineering Ph.D. programs. He has affiliations with the Institute for Data Engineering and Science (IDEAS) and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. His research focuses on developing machine learning and deep learning solutions for protein and small molecular design and engineering.

Lieberman is the Sepcic-Pfeil Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Her research focuses on the biophysical and structural characterization of proteins and the impact of disease-associated mutations on function or dysfunction (e.g., aggregation).

“This project will combine our expertise to harness the power of generative artificial intelligence, large language models, and protein sequences to comprehend genetic mutations that cause a severe form of glaucoma that primarily affects children,” said Aghazedeh.

Ankur Singh and M.G. Finn were also selected for funding for their proposal, "Modeling Human Immune Responses to α-Galactosyl Immunogen in Hydrogel-Based Organoids.”

Singh is Carl Ring Family Professor with a joint appointment in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. He is also the director of the Center of Immunoengineering at Georgia Tech. His laboratory develops immune organoids and enabling technologies to understand healthy and diseased immune cells and translate therapeutics.

Finn is a professor and school chair in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the chief scientific officer of the Georgia Tech Pediatric Innovation Network. His lab develops chemical and biological tools for research in a wide range of fields, such as chemistry, biology, immunology, and evolution with viruses.

“There is an increasing need to find stronger immunogens that can be used to create more effective vaccines. One promising candidate is α-galactosyl immunogens, which have shown great potential in animals, but we don't know much about if and how they would work in humans,” said Singh. “We are excited that the IBB seed grant will allow us to combine the Singh lab’s expertise in creating human immune tissues in the lab with the Finn lab’s unique skills in designing these immunogens. This collaboration will help us better understand how these potential vaccine ingredients perform in human-like systems.”

The projects will each receive an award of $40,000 to be spent by June 30, 2025.