Postdoctoral scholar Shunzhi Wang, PhD, has recieved a Career Award at the Scientific Interface (CASI) from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Created to support cross-trained scientists furthering biomedical research, the award provides support over five years to bridge advanced postdoctoral training and the initial years of faculty service.

Shunzhi’s research spans chemistry and biology, with an emphasis on programmable matter and the design of useful biomolecular systems. Since joining the lab in 2019, he’s co-led multiple projects, yielding custom protein crystals and a reinforcement learning approach to protein design. 

“Drug delivery vehicles are supposed to help medicines move through the body to reach disease targets, but they face many intricate and diverse biological roadblocks. To tackle this, I’m building advanced delivery systems that combine lipids and AI-designed proteins,” said Shunzhi. “With CASI support, I hope to establish these enveloped protein capsids as a platform for intracellular delivery of biologics.”

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund launched the Career Awards at the Scientific Interface in 1999 to foster the early career development of researchers who are transitioning from training environments in the physical, mathematical, computational sciences and/or engineering into postdoctoral work in the biological sciences, and who are dedicated to pursuing a career in academic research. Learn more at bwfund.org.