NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Given to Office of Science Supported Researcher

Summary

Xiaoliang Sunney Xie, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University was among the group of distinguished scientists receiving the newly created National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Pioneer Award. Professor Xie was formerly on the staff at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and his research on the application of single molecule techniques to biological problems has been financially supported by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research for a number of years. The award cited research: (1) to understand conformational and chemical dynamics of biomolecules such as enzymes through single-molecule spectroscopic studies; (2) to study biochemical activities of macromolecules in living cells, gene expression in particular, at the single-molecule level; (3) to develop new microscopy techniques for cellular imaging. The NIH award is designed to support individual scientists and thinkers with highly innovative ideas and approaches to contemporary challenges in biomedical research.