The BioInnovation Institute and Science presented the Innovation Prize to Indian American Aditya Kunjapur

April 25 :
The BioInnovation Institute & Science Prize for Innovation for 2024 went to Indian-American biomolecular engineer Aditya Kunjapur, whose efforts to improve the platform for potential future bacterial vaccines were the deciding factor. Recognising and rewarding excellence in research that straddles the boundary between the biological sciences and entrepreneurship is the goal of this prize. He will get a monetary prize, travel to Copenhagen for the awards ceremony, and publishing of an essay about his study on bacterial vaccines in the Science issue of April 5.

He oversees a synthetic biology research programme as an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Delaware. Synthetic biology is an area of study that aims to engineer organisms more easily. His program's overarching objective is to address issues with human and environmental health by increasing the chemical toolbox of microorganisms. His work aims to programme cells to produce and utilise building blocks that are novel to nature, with the ultimate goal of increasing the variety and location of compounds that microorganisms may produce.

"Our primary hypothesis is that engineering cells to access a broader chemical repertoire of building blocks can improve live bacterial vaccine efficacy," Kunjapur says in his winning article. "Previous research that modified a bacterial protein with a non-standard amino acid called para-nitro-L-phenylalanine (nitro-Phe)" was one of the building pieces that aroused his interest, according to Science magazine. "The immune system was able to access or recognise the bacterial protein more easily after these nitrated proteins induced sustained production of antibodies in mice."

In order to further develop the nitro-Phe technology, he and Butler co-founded Nitro Biosciences, Inc. He mentioned that since beginning the company, he has given greater consideration to the technology's end users and the measurements and criteria they require for effective utilisation. "It's unfortunate that a great deal of research in academia could have real-world applications, but researchers in academia aren't typically encouraged or educated to consider customer needs, identify customers, and figure out how to bring technology to a point where it could be used in clinical settings," Kunjapur lamented.

Graduated with honours from both UT Austin and MIT, he began his academic career at the University of Texas. In December 2018, after finishing his postdoctoral programme at Harvard Medical School, he began working in the laboratory of the University of Delaware's Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.