George Washington University researchers Sandy Kawano, assistant professor of biology at the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, and Luyao Lu, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, each received Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The award is the federal agency’s most prestigious honor supporting new work from junior faculty with the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in their fields. The projects are funded over five years.
Currently, 17 GW faculty—including Kawano and Lu—have active CAREER awards.
“These new awards are further evidence that GW fosters top faculty talent who are recognized for their potential to serve as academic role models in research and education,” said Pamela Norris, vice provost for research at GW and a former CAREER awardee. “My own award was transformational, not just for advancing my research but also for my professional development. These faculty are on track to be among the most impactful scholars, mentors and leaders in their fields.”
Kawano supervises the CCAS Fins and Limbs Lab, which studies the anatomical and physiological features that enable vertebrate animals to move effectively in different environments. Salamanders, such as the Ensatina eschscholtzii oregonensis, occupy a wide range of habitats ranging from fully aquatic to fully terrestrial.
Her CAREER award will support her research on the evolutionary biomechanics of salamander locomotion. Her project will integrate physiology, engineering and evolutionary biology to examine how habitat preference and development affects the structure and function of bones and whole-organism performance in locomotion.
“It is an absolute honor to receive an NSF CAREER grant, and I am so grateful to my colleagues who helped make this dream come true,” Kawano said. “Receiving this grant is a real game-changer in my pursuits as a teacher-scholar to not only advance the science but also the scientists. By interweaving research and education, my team and I will lead novel research on the evolution of bone strength while broadening the participation of historically disadvantaged groups in STEM by offering more equitable and inclusive access to research opportunities.”
Kawano credited CCAS Professor of Physics Evangeline J. Downie with hosting an NSF CAREER workshop that “equipped me with the insights and skills to write a winning application,” she said. Kawano will also host a “Salamander Safaris” event during Amphibian Week in May to promote the participation of girls in STEM.
Lu supervises GW’s Advanced Bio-integrated Electronics Lab, which explores how the next generation of soft, lightweight materials—nanomaterials, polymers and organic and inorganic semiconductors—could be used to create advanced healthcare platforms, seamlessly integrating with biological systems to facilitate personalized medicine design and accurate disease diagnosis.
Lu’s CAREER Award will support his work developing automated “lab-on-a-chip” platforms that can accurately monitor and modulate the behavior of in vitro live cells, like stem cells. These cells are powerful models for replicating human physiology and pathophysiology (disordered physiological processes associated with injury or disease). By studying them, researchers can analyze cell function, cellular mechanisms of action and responses to interventions in detail. But limited techniques currently exist to comprehensively investigate these cell models over the long term.
Lu’s lab-on-a-chip will address that space, providing ongoing, real-time information at a high level of precision about multiple live cell properties and their interplay under controlled cultivation conditions with minimal human exposure. These detailed models of cell behavior will be translatable into multiple biomedical research fields, including physiology investigation, disease modeling and pharmacology.
The platform also will incorporate advanced hardware and software that allows researchers to analyze the volumes of data generated without needing significant technical expertise. And because it facilitates long-term monitoring without direct contact with the materials of study, the lab-on-a-chip will enable researchers to work more safely with dangerous pathogens and toxic or radioactive substances.
Lu’s community outreach plans include lectures and pedagogical demonstration kits on bioelectronics research for K-12 students, as well as integrating local high school students into the work.
“I am very honored and incredibly happy to receive the NSF CAREER award,” Lu said. “It provides significant funding over the next five years to support our lab-on-a-chip research, and I feel very humbled that NSF thought our ideas and proposed work is worth pursuing. I would like to thank my exceptional students (both past and current) and my great colleagues within and outside the biomedical engineering department. This achievement would not be possible with their contributions and support. This award will also allow us to foster interdisciplinary research training opportunities and attract more underrepresented minorities into STEM.”