Biophysics: Prof. Lydia Kisley awarded $1.9 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant

Lydia Kisley, Warren E. Rupp Assistant Professor, Departments of Physics & Chemistry


Lydia Kisley, Warren E. Rupp Assistant Professor in CWRU Departments of Physics and Chemistry, was recently awarded a $1.9 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for a project focusing on the “super-resolution fluorescence imaging of extracellular environments.” CWRU’s the daily recently profiled her in its 5 questions with… Lydia Kisley, physics and chemistry faculty member.

“It’s a dream to have the chance to bring people to Cleveland to do research,” Kisley said. 

EXCERPT: After seeing the impact she could make with science firsthand, Kisley went on to study chemistry and physics as an undergraduate, received her PhD in chemistry from Rice University in 2015 and then made her way to the University of  Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a postdoctoral fellow. By 2017, she was recognized as one of the “brightest, young innovators and game changers” by Forbes 30 under 30 and in 2019, she made her way back to Cleveland to join CWRU as an assistant professor.

Now, Kisley has been awarded a $1.9 million NIH grant for a project focusing on the “super-resolution fluorescence imaging of extracellular environments.” Through the project, she and her team will image proteins in the biophysical environment outside of the cell—an area that has been under explored, as biophysicists have focused on the inside of the cell—with super-resolution microscopy. With an interdisciplinary approach, this research will impact and involve multiple areas of study, including physics, chemistry, biology, biomedical engineering and materials science. 

Through the project, she and her team will image proteins in the biophysical environment outside of the cell—an area that has been under explored, as biophysicists have focused on the inside of the cell—with super-resolution microscopy. With an interdisciplinary approach, this research will impact and involve multiple areas of study, including physics, chemistry, biology, biomedical engineering and materials science.

 
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