Author: allisn3

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NIH backs Olanrewaju lab’s build faster, low-cost HIV medication tests

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Ayọ̀kúnlé Ọlánrewájú — MolES faculty member and assistant professor of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering — has received a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). With this funding provided by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Ọlánrewájú and his multidisciplinary team will focus on designing faster and more affordable HIV medication tests to improve drug adherence. Learn more about his lab’s research in Department of Bioengineering’s full announcement.

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Dr. Cole DeForest receives renewed funding from NIH for studying biology in 4D

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July 29, 2026 | UW Chemical Engineering

Cole DeForest — MolES director of education and Weyerhaeuser endowed professor of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering — received a funding extension of five years from the National Institutes of Health. The grant will support his lab in developing methods for studying human development and disease progression. Learn more about his lab’s work in the full announcement.

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Q&A: How UW researchers are using AI to speed up drug discovery and development

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July 27, 2026 | UW News

The newly launched Institute for Innovations in Drug Delivery and Disposition (I2D3) brings together expertise from across the University of Washington, including two MolES faculty leaders: Gaurav Bhardwaj, an associate professor of medicinal chemistry who oversees the Institute’s AI-enabled molecular design: and Marco Pravetoni, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science in the UW School of Medicine, who leads drug discovery, translation and commercialization efforts.

In this Q&A by UW News, learn how they’re applying artificial intelligence methods to address the challenges associated with drug development, the most failure-prone processes in modern science. Read More

Dr. Jorge Marchand receives NIH funding to grow the “biocatalytic toolkit” for therapeutics

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July 22, 2026 | UW Chemical Engineering

Jorge Marchand, MolES faculty member and assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has received the prestigious Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Designed to provide highly talented and promising investigators with stable funding,  this five-year grant will support Dr. Marchand’s research on the biosynthesis, discovery and biocatalytic production of natural products. Read the full announcement.

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UW’s ISCRM–MolES Pilot Awards fuel cross-disciplinary innovation

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June 26, 2026

The Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM) and Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute (MolES) awarded two UW faculty-led teams Pilot Fellowship Funding.

“These awards support projects initiated through the 2026 ISCRM-MolES Scientific Exchange and are intended to launch new collaborations between the two institutes to develop technologies that will address the root causes of disease, along with creating new opportunities for trainees,” said Suzie Pun, Washington Research Foundation Professor of Bioengineering and director of MolES. Read More

Celebrating MolES graduates

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On June 8 in Kane Hall, the UW Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute (MolES) held a hooding ceremony for eight of our 2025-2026 molecular engineering PhD graduates.  

  
Congratulations, Class of 2025–2026! 
 

Headshot of Gaby Balistreri

Gabrielle Balistreri | Chemical Engineering, Material Science Engineering 
Advised by Elizabeth Nance and Eleftheria Roumeli 

Gabrielle’s thesis, Sustainably Sourced Bacterial Cellulose Nanoparticles for Targeted Drug Delivery, was completed in the winter of 2026.  

Headshot of Samantha Borje

Samantha Borje | Electrical & Computer Engineering 
Advised by Georg Seelig 

Samantha’s thesis, High-throughput Implementation and Clique-based Design:  Scaling DNA circuits from Boolean logic gates to Multi-bit Addition, will be completed in the summer of 2026.   

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MolES honors students with awards for research and service

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June 12, 2026


The University of Washington’s Institute for Molecular Engineering and Sciences (MolES) recognized outstanding students with its annual MolES Student Awards.  

 
Distinguished Dissertation Awards

Headshot of Gizem Gökçe-Alpkılıç


Gizem Gökçe-Alpkılıç, PhD, advised by Guarav Bhardwaj, was recognized for her exceptional contribution in advancing a research direction at the interface of medicinal chemistry, protein engineering, chemical biology, and artificial intelligence.  
 
“Her work helped establish experimental and computational workflows that are now being used by many other students and researchers in the field,” said Bhardwaj. “The broader impact of Gizem’s innovation is substantial: AI-enabled molecular design has enormous potential, but its progress depends on rigorous experimental validation and high-quality feedback data.”

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Engineering the Future

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June 11, 2026 | By by Malavika Jagannathan, University Marketing & Communications
Photos credits: Mark Stone and provided by Gizem Gökçe-Alpkılıç

Equipped with her molecular engineering doctorate, recent grad Gizem Gökçe-Alpkılıç is using AI-powered tools to create proteins and solve global challenges, like drug-resistant infection.

As a young child, Gizem Gökçe-Alpkılıç asked her parents for a microscope to allow her to dissect the world around her. She’s still looking at life’s smallest parts today at the UW’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD) — just with a few more sophisticated tools at her disposal.   Read More

2026 MolES Catalyst Awards support collaborative microbial research initiatives  

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May 27, 2026

Six headshots of award recipients stacked in two rows with text that reads 2026 MolES Catalyst Awards
L to R: Monica Guo, Lauren Rajakovich, Sid Venkatesh, Anna Kuchina, Sean Gibbons and Joshua Elmore
Photos: Institute for Systems Biology, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and University of Washington

Three University of Washington faculty-led teams received the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute’s (MolES’s) 2026 Catalyst Awards. These awards seed new research initiatives and support preliminary data generation. Each team will receive $5,000 in award funding to help launch their collaborative research.

In April, participants in the MolES-sponsored Microbial Engineering Scientific Exchange were invited to collaborate with fellow scientists on microbial engineering research projects and apply for catalyst award funding. Read More