Hopkins researchers receive Chan Zuckerberg Initiative awards

Three Johns Hopkins biomedical engineers have been chosen to receive Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) Collaborative Pairs Pilot Project Awards. These awards support pairs of investigators and their teams to explore innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to address critical challenges in the fields of neurodegenerative disease and fundamental neuroscience.  

The CZI award allocates $200,000 over 18 months, with successful pilots becoming eligible for additional four-year project development grants. Collaborative Pairs teams will benefit from the support, mentoring and collaborative interactions of the CZI Neurodegeneration Challenge Network, as well as interactions with the broader CZ Science programs and grantee network. This year, 64 projects were selected for funding.  

More on the Hopkins projects  

Adam Charles, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, is teaming up with Kaspar Podgorski from the Allen Institue for Neural Dynamics for the project “Tools to Measure Neural Input-Output Operations.” The pair will combine newly developed neurotransmitter indicators, imaging hardware, processing algorithms, and inference methods to see how neurons transmit signals in real time.

Jamie Spangler, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering, is working with Ethan Lippman, an associate professor at Vanderbilt University, on the project “Targeted Brain Immunotherapy with Engineered Cytokines.” Together they will develop a type of immunotherapy, using immune-stimulating proteins called cytokines, to target amyloid beta proteins that cause Alzheimer’s disease. 

Jeremias Sulam, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, will collaborate with Dwight Bergles, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins, on “Brain-Wide Maps of Myelin Patterns in Plasticity and Repair.” The project will investigate the lipid and protein-rich myelin sheath surrounding neurons in the brain.