UNC Asheville Chemistry & Biochemistry Professors Awarded $505,000 Grant from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

University of North Carolina Asheville Professors of Chemistry and Biochemistry Amanda Wolfe, Ph.D., and Ryan Steed, Ph.D. are the recipients of a $505,350 Academic Research Enhancement Award (R15) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to study how bacterial energy production can be targeted for antibiotic development to fight bacteria that are frequently the cause of hospital acquired infections. R15 grants are highly competitive federal awards – only 1 out of 10 get funded – to support primarily undergraduate institutions. The grants feature rigorous peer-review standards similar to major R1 research awards combined with strict institutional and principal investigator eligibility rules.

In collaboration with Chemistry Professor Vince Rotello, PhD, at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst, Wolfe and Steed won the competitive R15 Academic Research Enhancement Award, which has an 11% funding rate at NIAID. The $505,305 award includes a $97,500 subaward for Dr. Rotello over three years.

“Infections caused by multi-drug resistant bacteria are a growing public health crisis and without new antibiotics, these infections will be the leading cause of death globally in the next 30 years ” said Professor Wolfe. “Because of the support from the NIAID, UNC Asheville undergraduate researchers in our laboratories will develop highly effective antibiotics that are capable of eradicating some of the world’s scariest superbugs.”

In addition to advancing urgently needed antibiotic research, the grant – Targeted development and selective delivery of small molecule antibiotics for the treatment of multidrug resistant infections caused by Gram-negative pathogens – has a strong educational mission. Each year, funding will support five undergraduate researchers at UNC Asheville, providing hands-on experience in drug discovery and infectious disease research.

Professor Steed said: “Students are the backbone of our drug discovery research, and this grant enables us to mentor them in paid laboratory research at a high level during the academic year and over the summer and allows them to present their results at national scientific conferences. This experience is the best possible preparation for a career in chemistry and biochemistry.”

Beginning in the second year of the grant, UNC Asheville students will also gain direct experience with in vivo wound infection models through collaborative work in Dr. Rotello’s laboratory at UMass Amherst.

About the research:

The project is led by Amanda L. Wolfe, PhD, GlaxoSmithKline Distinguished Professor and Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UNC Asheville, with P. Ryan Steed, PhD, Glaxo Wellcome Distinguished Professor and Professor in the same department, serving as Co‑Investigator. Wolfe and Steed have an established, long‑term research collaboration, and this award represents the second NIAID R15 grant supporting their joint efforts to build a deep understanding of how bacterial energy production can be targeted for antibiotic development. The team also includes Vince Rotello, PhD, Charles A. Goessmann Professor of Chemistry and a University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Bacterial infections are increasingly resistant to currently prescribed antibiotics, so discovering new drugs is essential. The research targets Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii, two multidrug‑resistant bacteria identified by the World Health Organization as critical priority pathogens. Instead of focusing on traditional antibiotic targets that bacteria have learned to resist, the project advances a novel strategy that disrupts bacterial energy production, an essential and underexplored vulnerability.

About UNC Asheville

UNC Asheville is North Carolina’s public liberal arts and sciences university of the future, marked by technology-driven solutions, hands-on learning, a student-centered focus and career and professional readiness. With award-winning faculty, small class sizes, and 60+ academic programs, including a dual degree in Engineering/Mechatronics with NC State, the University provides free tuition and fees through its Access Asheville program as well as merit scholarships to all first-year students. In the US News & World Report 2026 edition of Best Colleges, UNC Asheville is ranked No. #10 in Top Public Schools, and No. #12 in Princeton Review’s 2026 Top 50 Guide to Green Colleges. Known as the Bulldogs, UNC Asheville student-athletes compete in 16 NCAA Division I Teams in the Big South Conference. For more information, please visit: unca.edu.