Volpatti Earns Research Award from Hartwell Foundation
The award will go toward Professor Lisa Volpatti’s work preventing organ transplant rejection
Northwestern Engineering’s Lisa Volpatti has received a 2024 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award from the Hartwell Foundation. Volpatti will also be designated a Hartwell Investigator.
One of 10 2024 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award recipients, Volpatti will receive $100,000 annually for three years to fund work on her proposal “Targeted Immunotherapies to Prevent Solid Organ Transplant Rejection.”
Volpatti is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering. Her research goal is to engineer immunomodulatory drugs such as cytokines to target specific cell or tissue types and reduce the side effects of immunotherapies. Specifically, the Volpatti Lab is interested in treating the inflammation that underlies metabolic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, liver disease, and cancer. Ultimately, Volpatti aims to prevent complications associated with obesity independent of cholesterol levels or weight loss.
The Hartwell Foundation’s primary mission is to grant awards to individuals for innovative and cutting-edge biomedical applied research that will potentially benefit children. The general aim is to provide funds for early-stage research projects that have not yet qualified for funding from traditional sources.