Yuzhang Li, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, has received two early career awards for his work and a total of $1.76 million in grants over the next three years.
Lee was awarded the 2024 National Institutes of Health Director’s Emerging Innovator Award on October 8. The award includes an initial three-year, $1.4 million grant to support research into charged electrode cryo-electron microscopy, a new technology developed by Lee’s lab, the Lee Group at UCLA. are.
This technique covers a gap between current microscopic imaging techniques and enables high-resolution, molecular-level views of instantaneous biological events such as neuron firing. This new method has the potential to shed new light on biological systems that operate out of equilibrium, a previously unexplored area of research.
With the new insights gained from this technology, Lee hopes it will be applied to neurostimulation treatments that could help patients suffering from neurological diseases. This technique could help study a variety of electrically based biological systems, such as muscle cells and heart cells.
Over the summer, Lee received the Army Research Office Young Investigator Award for his work in developing battery technology “beyond lithium” based on magnesium or aluminum. The award includes a three-year, $360,000 grant to fund his research.
Lee, who has been on the UCLA Samueli faculty since 2020, is at the cutting edge of electrochemical systems with the goal of developing new electrochemical systems that play a key role in renewable energy, sustainability, and tackling global climate change. researches experimental tools and engineering methodologies. .
His research interests include the design of next-generation batteries using cryo-electron microscopy and the use of nanomaterials for carbon capture. UCLA’s Li group has made significant contributions to the discovery of important discoveries for the next generation of batteries and solar cells.
To learn more about Lee’s awards, visit the UCLA Samueli website.
