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UCSD - University of California - San Diego

10/23/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/23/2026 12:36

UC San Diego Researchers Receive High-Risk, High-Reward Research Grants from the NIH

Published Date

October 23, 2026

Article Content

Two University of California San Diego researchers have received prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) director's awards through the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, which supports exceptionally creative scientists pursuing bold ideas with the potential for broad biomedical impact.

Supported by the NIH Common Fund, these grants are designed to advance high-impact research ideas that might be too preliminary or unconventional for traditional funding mechanisms.

Awardees are Melissa Campbell, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Geoffrey Chang, PhD, professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

New Innovator Award

The NIH Director's New Innovator Award, established in 2007, supports early-stage researchers who are within 10 years of their final degree or postgraduate clinical training and have not yet received substantial NIH funding. The award totals nearly $2.4 million over five years.

Campbell's lab combines stem-cell and organoid systems, animal models, engineered platforms and advanced imaging to study how environmental factors influence development from the maternal-fetal interface to the brain.

Environmental exposures during pregnancy, including pesticides, air pollution and common medications, have been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and schizophrenia, but how they affect the developing brain remains poorly understood.

Campbell's lab is pioneering a "placenta-brain-on-a-chip" platform that combines human placental and developing brain tissue with advanced fluorescent biosensors. By allowing researchers to observe cellular responses to exposures in real time, the technology could open a new window into how environmental exposures shape brain development before birth.

Ultimately, the goal is to understand how the placenta modifies the effects of environmental exposures and how those changes influence brain development. The research may also reveal what makes developing brain cells more vulnerable to harm - or better able to withstand it.

Transformative Research Award

The NIH Director's Transformative Research Award, established in 2009, supports bold, unconventional research with the potential to challenge established scientific thinking or fundamentally change how we understand a field. The award totals $3.2 million over five years.

Chang's lab studies the molecular mechanisms underlying how cells transport and respond to small molecules. The award will support the development of new technology that creates fluorescent biosensors that light up when a specific small molecule is present.

This research was inspired by a naturally occurring fluorescent protein, which Chang and his team re-engineered to recognize different small molecules and produce a fluorescent signal.

If successful, the technology could transform biosensor development from a largely trial-and-error process toward a more general and possibly predictable approach that enables researchers to create visual sensors for a wide range of molecules. The biosensors could eventually become a widely used research tool, much like PCR or CRISPR, with applications across medicine, biotechnology and environmental health.

By making it easier to observe molecules in action, the technology could help researchers better understand how diseases develop and how treatments work, potentially informing the development of safer, more effective therapies. Other potential applications include at-home diagnostic tests, accelerated drug discovery and rapid detection of environmental chemicals and pollutants.

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