Carnegie Mellon University
September 05, 2014

News Brief: Tzahi Cohen-Karni Receives a Grant from the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation

Contact: Sherry Stokes / 412-268-5976 / stokes@cmu.edu

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University Biomedical Engineering Assistant Professor Tzahi Cohen-Karni, Ph.D., and his team will share a 2014 Kaufman Foundation grant of roughly $2 million with nine researchers from across six Pennsylvania universities.

As a winner in the New Investigator Research category, Cohen-Karni was awarded $150,000, to be disbursed over two years. The Cohen-Karni Lab received this grant to fund their research that examines how cells in the pancreatic islet communicate.

Through the synthesis of nanomaterials (such as silicon nanowires) and the development of nanoscale sensors, they will be able to peek into the key mechanisms of glucose level maintenance with outstanding resolution.

This nanomaterials-based measurement platform developed by the Cohen-Karni Lab will lay the groundwork for further investigations into disease abnormalities.

The grant was awarded by The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation, a division of The Pittsburgh Foundation. The fund, established in 2010 by the donation of Kaufman's $50 million estate following his death, provides grant awards each year to support cutting-edge scientific research at institutions all across Pennsylvania.

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