News
Tue, 08/25/2026
$1.5 million NSF grant will support KU research modeling molecular systems using AI
University of Kansas researcher Ilya Vakser and colleagues at Stony Brook University and the Stowers Institute for Medical Research will use a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation to expand knowledge of macromolecular systems using artificial intelligence.
Sun, 06/01/2025
$1.8 Million NIH Grant Awarded
Ilya Vakser was awarded a five-year, $1.8 million R35 Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The grant entitled "Modeling of macromolecular interactions in the cell” aims at developing extra-long time scale AI-enabled simulations of live cells at atomic resolution.
Wed, 05/22/2024
IMPRESS-U Award
The Vakser Lab received an NSF award from IMPRESS-U (International Multilateral Partnerships for Resilient Education and Science System in Ukraine) program. The award will support research teams from four countries - USA (KU, lead), UK (Imperial College London), Lithuania (Vilnius University) and Ukraine (Kyiv Polytechnic Institute). The project will advance AI in biology and medicine, and contribute to building a modern, state-of-the-art research, education and innovation ecosystem in Ukraine
Wed, 12/28/2022
Vakser Lab receives $1M NSF grant to predict phenotypic effects of genetic mutations
The Vakser Lab received a 3 year $1M award from the National Science Foundation "UKRI/BBSRC - NSF/BIO: Modeling of protein interactions to predict phenotypic effects of genetic mutations”. The project (a collaboration with the Imperial College, London) focuses on application of computational techniques to the development of a public resource incorporating structural modeling of proteins and protein assemblies with genetic amino acid variants and assessment of their functional impact.
Thu, 10/06/2022
Vakser Lab Work Opens a New Chapter in Cell Modeling
A study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences puts forward a novel approach to computer modeling of molecular mechanisms of life. The approach is capable of reaching extra-long simulation times of cell-sized molecular systems at atomic resolution, to address cellular phenomena which now is far beyond the capabilities of the existing techniques. More at https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/966821.
Mon, 09/12/2022
Joanna Slusky receives $1.5M NSF Molecular Foundations of Biotechnology award
Associate Professor Joanna Slusky received an NSF Molecular Foundations of Biotechnology award titled: MFB: NSF-BSF: Data-Adaptive and Metamorphosis Machine Learning Architectures for Generative Protein Design of Metal Biosensors. This is a three year $1.5 million award for fundamentally new approaches in chemistry to drive new directions in biotechnology.
Wed, 08/03/2022
Joanna Slusky Elected to Protein Society Executive Council
Associate Professor Joanna Slusky was elected to a three year term as a member of the executive committee of The Protein Society. The Protein Society is an international, not-for-profit, scholarly society with the mission to provide forums for the advancement of research into protein structure, function, design and applications.
Tue, 11/30/2021
Jinan Wang Receives 2022 KU Research Staff Achievement Award
KU Research Staff Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to methods developments and cutting-edge applications of computational drug discovery. The award was established in 2018 to recognize contributions of staff researchers to the research mission of the University of Kansas. Dr. Wang will be recognized at a ceremony held in April 2022.
Mon, 09/13/2021
MIAO lab Work Published in Nature
Congratulations to the Miao Lab for a paper published in Nature, entitled “Positive allosteric mechanisms of adenosine A1 receptor-mediated analgesia”. The work is in collaboration with the Alisa Glukhova, Wendy Imlach and Arthur Christopoulos Labs at Monash University in Australia.
Mon, 06/14/2021
Yinglong Miao Wins Openeye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award
Yinglong Miao is one of the winners of the OpenEye outstanding Junior Faculty award managed by the Computers in Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. The competitive award identifies junior stars in the area of computational chemistry and modeling.