Carlos Barbas Wins NIH Pioneer Award

Carlos F. Barbas III is among the recipients of the 2010 National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Awards, which provide up to $500,000 in research funding for five years. The award supports exceptionally creative scientists who take innovative approaches to major challenges in biomedical research.

Barbas is Janet & Keith Kellogg II Chair in Molecular Biology and a chemistry professor at Scripps Research Institute. His research will focus on chemically programming immunity, which could lead to “instant immunity” vaccines for the flu, HIV-1, and cancer. The new approach may help overcome the lag time that current vaccinations take to build the body’s immunity against pathogens.