Bhagi-Damodaran lab secures $2.12M NIH grant to reprogram cellular redox circuits
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (05/22/2026) — The laboratory of Associate Professor Ambika Bhagi-Damodaran has been awarded a competitive $2.12 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The five-year award will fund the lab’s pioneering research into developing molecular strategies to precisely control enzymatic redox circuitries in bacterial and human cells. This approach could pave the way for novel therapeutics for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other diseases driven by oxidative stress.
Much like the electrical circuits that power our homes, the cells in our bodies possess intricate networks of enzymes designed to sense and respond to chemical changes in their microenvironment. When a cell experiences a redox imbalance — an excess of reactive oxygen species or a disruption in its chemical equilibrium — these enzymatic networks act as biological circuit breakers to help the cell cope. However, in diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's, these regulatory circuits often malfunction or are hijacked by the disease process. With the support of their NIH funding, the Bhagi-Damodaran lab will build the molecular tools necessary to reprogram these complex biological circuits. By designing targeted molecular strategies, the team hopes to gain precise control over these enzymatic networks, restoring balance to diseased cells and opening entirely new avenues for therapeutic intervention.
This newly funded project builds upon the foundation of a highly successful research program in the Bhagi-Damodaran lab. Recently, the research team demonstrated a crucial proof-of-concept for this approach by successfully reprogramming hypoxia (low-oxygen) signaling in cells, a study published in Angewandte Chemie. In that groundbreaking work, the lab designed the oxygen-delivering tunnels in an iron enzyme to selectively tune its response to oxygen levels. By artificially manipulating the oxygen sensing mechanism of the enzyme, the team was able to dictate how cells responded to low-oxygen environments—a critical factor in solid tumor growth.
"The ability to fundamentally reprogram how a cell interprets its oxygen environment was a major milestone for our lab," said Prof. Bhagi-Damodaran. "It proved that we can, in fact, go into these complex biological systems and rationally tune these bio-inorganic sensors. This new NIGMS grant allows us to expand that vision over the next five years, moving beyond just oxygen sensing to tackle the broader, intricate redox circuitries that govern human health and disease."
Over the next five years, the NIGMS funding will enable the lab to expand its interdisciplinary approach, blending bio-inorganic chemistry, computational protein engineering, and chemical biology. By decoding and controlling these fundamental cellular circuits, the Bhagi-Damodaran lab's research is poised to significantly impact how chemists approach drug design for some of today's most challenging medical conditions.
About the Bhagi-Damodaran Lab
The Bhagi-Damodaran group is made up of 8 researchers and graduate students. The group’s work is centered on the fundamentals of biological, inorganic, medicinal, and computational chemistry to gain insights into structure and function of metalloproteins and change their landscape in energy, catalysis, and medicine. Since joining the University of Minnesota Department of Chemistry in Fall 2018, Prof. Bhagi-Damodaran has been recognized numerous times for her research. Her recent awards include the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award (2020), the NIH Maximizing Investigator's Research Award (MIRA) (2020), the NSF CAREER Award (2021), the UMN McKnight Land-Grant Professorship (2023), the Cottrell Scholar Award (2023), and the Reyerson Professorship (2026).
About the National Institute of General Medical Sciences
From the NIGMS website
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) supports basic research that increases our understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. NIGMS also supports research in specific clinical areas that affect multiple organ systems: anesthesiology and peri-operative pain; clinical pharmacology common to multiple drugs and treatments; and injury, critical illness, sepsis, and wound healing. NIGMS-funded scientists investigate how living systems work at a range of levels—from molecules and cells to tissues and organs—in research organisms, humans, and populations. Additionally, to ensure the vitality and continued productivity of the research enterprise, NIGMS provides leadership in supporting the training of future scientists and developing research capacity throughout the country.
NIGMS is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the principal medical research agency of the federal government and a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. With a budget of $3.2 billion in FY 2023, NIGMS supported more than 4,800 investigators, more than 5,500 research grants, and more than 5,200 research trainees. The Institute has a strong track record of funding scientists who go on to receive Nobel Prizes, including 51 in Chemistry and 46 in Physiology or Medicine.