Julie Champion, assistant professor in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, has received a one-year grant for more than $104,000 from the Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation.

The grant will support student researchers and purchase supplies for Champion’s research on using protein assembly to create therapeutic materials.

“This grant will enable us to design effective methods of delivering antibodies inside cells,” Champion said. “Antibodies can treat many diseases, including cancers, but currently they can only be used outside of cells. There are many more disease targets for antibodies inside cells, but the challenge is to get the antibodies inside the cells, because they do not enter on their own.

“We are developing ways to introduce the antibodies inside the cells without damaging the structure of the antibodies, which destroys their effectiveness.”

The Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation supports scientific research — particularly in the areas of neuroscience, regenerative medicine, cell biology, cancer and nanotechnology or nanoscience — that is “intended to benefit all or a large portion of humanity,” according to the organization’s mission statement.