U prof receives $1.5 million for New Innovator Award

The National Institutes of Health announced Monday that Christy Haynes, an assistant chemistry professor at the University, is a recipient of the organization’s 2008 New Innovator Award.

The award will provide $1.5 million over five years for Hayne’s research . With the money, Haynes said she plans to build a cell-by-cell human immune system to identify possible therapeutic approaches for treating asthma and allergic reactions.

“The University of Minnesota is a great place to do this kind of research,” she said. “The department is really supportive that I am not necessarily doing traditional chemistry.”

Only early-career investigators who have not held a NIH grant are eligible for the New Innovator Award, according to a NIH press release.

Rhonda Zurn, spokeswoman for the Institute of Technology, said this is the second year of the NIH New Innovator Award, but the first time it has been awarded to a University faculty member.

“It is really to jumpstart the careers of a promising new researcher,” she said. “It shows that we have state-of-the-art research facilities and researchers here at the University.”

Haynes’ research group plans to use the University’s Nanofabrication Center to build a model of a human immune system and then measure how the cells communicate with each other when exposed to allergens.