Michael Bollong named a 2023 Amgen Young Investigator
September 21, 2023
Michael Bollong, PhD, associate professor of chemistry and the Early Career Endowed Roon Chair for Cardiovascular Research
LA JOLLA, CA — Michael Bollong, PhD, associate professor of chemistry and the Early Career Endowed Roon Chair for Cardiovascular Research, has received the 2023 Amgen Young Investigator Award.
Amgen, a global biopharmaceutical company, grants these awards to support academic excellence from early-career investigators who are making significant contributions in the fields of biology, chemical biology and chemistry that will continue to advance drug discovery in the years to come. Bollong will receive a $25,000 research grant as one of this year’s award winners. Scripps Research chemistry professor Keary Engle, PhD, was also named an Amgen Young Investigator in 2020.
“I am honored to be named one of this year’s Amgen Young Investigators, joining a group of truly talented scientists and innovators,” Bollong says. “Importantly, this award is also a testament to the collective efforts of my colleagues and collaborators, and it will help support our work of pushing the boundaries of what is possible in drug discovery.”
At Scripps Research, Bollong is focused on identifying new therapeutics that can target the body’s regeneration and cell stress signaling pathways. He and his team accomplish this by utilizing the traditional drug discovery tools—high-throughput small molecule screens—coupled with modern target identification techniques to intervene in the biological processes that cause human disease. Specifically, his group is interested in uncovering new molecules and mechanisms to promote regenerative organ repair, and to activate protective transcriptional stress responses.
Bollong earned his doctoral degree in chemical biology at the Scripps Research graduate school, now known as the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences. Upon graduation, he was hired as the first Scripps Research Fellow, a program dedicated to finding and nurturing the next generation of scientific leaders. He was promoted to assistant professor in 2020.
Bollong has also received numerous additional awards and honors for his research, including the ACS Philip S. Portoghese Lectureship Award and the Baxter Foundation Young Faculty Award.
Bollong was one of five total scientists to receive the 2023 Amgen Young Investigator Award—the others include Zachary Wickens, PhD, University of Wisconsin; Courtney Roberts, PhD, University of Minnesota; Eunyong Park, PhD, UC Berkeley; and Brandon DeKosky, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
This year’s award winners will be honored at the 21st Annual Young Investigator Award Symposium on October 18, 2023, where recipients will present their research updates with Amgen staff.
New regenerative lung therapy begins phase 1 trials | CMR316 & IPF treatment
The Calibr-Skaggs Institute for Innovative Medicines, part of Scripps Research, has begun testing a new regenerative lung therapy called CMR316. This inhaled treatment could change the way we treat lung diseases like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and potentially even chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by stimulating stem cells to restore damaged lung tissue. In this phase 1 clinical trial, they're checking the safety and effects of this once-weekly drug in both healthy volunteers and IPF patients.
Regenerating tissues to treat disease
Regenerative medicine involves harnessing the body’s own capacity to repair tissues and organs. In this Front Row lecture, Associate Professor Michael Bollong shared how he's identifying and targeting the pathways controlling regeneration. By combining traditional drug discovery tools with modern biological techniques, Bollong and his lab are developing novel medicines that can intervene in the processes that cause a spectrum of human diseases and medical conditions, including heart disease, inflammatory disease and fibrosis.
