Chi Zhang, a graduate student in the chemistry lab of Assistant Professor Bradley Pentelute, has won the 2016 Regeneron Prize for Creative Innovation. Zhang’s research focuses on the development of chemical biology tools for the tailoring of peptides and proteins, which could potentially be used in the creation of targeted therapies. This past year, his work has been published in both Nature and Nature Chemistry.
Established to acknowledge, reward, and support talented biomedical scientists early in their careers, the Regeneron Prize is the country’s most prestigious award a graduate student in the field can receive. This year marks the fourth annual occasion that Regeneron, a leading biopharmaceutical company based in New York, has bestowed the honor.
Each year, the award committee invites academic institutions to nominate two graduate students and two postdocs to apply for the prize. One winner from each group is selected from this highly competitive pool based on his or her body of published work and a submitted biomedical research project proposal. The award is accompanied by a $50,000 prize and a donation to the winners’ institutions in support of their seminar series.
