The highly competitive award supports high-risk, high-reward projects
Hong Chen, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, has received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Pioneer Award to use ultrasound to induce a hibernation-like state in mammals — something that was previously considered to be science fiction.
The five-year, $5.4 million award is one of eight awarded following a highly competitive application and interview by peer scientist-researchers nationwide. The award supports innovative researchers who propose bold research projects with unusually broad scientific impact. Chen is one of three WashU faculty to receive awards in 2024.
“Over Hong’s time in biomedical engineering, she has unveiled a steady stream of therapeutic and diagnostic innovations that leave us hopeful for a pain-free, disease-free future,” said Lori Setton, the Lucy & Stanley Lopata Distinguished Professor and chair of Biomedical Engineering in the McKelvey School of Engineering. “This most recent success with ultrasound-induced torpor promises to change how we think about organ failure and replacement, cardiac pathology, and more generally, human health. Hong has identified a new frontier that she is sure to transform with this NIH Pioneer Award.
“Dr. Chen is a scientific superstar,” said Gregory J. Zipfel, MD, the Ralph G. Dacey Distinguished Professor of Neurological Surgery and head of the Department of Neurosurgery. “She has been a major asset to WashU Medicine, McKelvey Engineering, and the departments of neurosurgery and biomedical engineering in her years here at WashU. Her deeply collaborative nature has led to pioneering discoveries in a number of important areas that are likely to ultimately change the way we care for patients with neurological disease. She absolutely is deserving of this prestigious award.”