The Beckman Institute named five new Postdoctoral Fellows. Their research covers a diverse set of topics, from diagnosing and treating breast cancer and ostoesarcoma, developing energy-efficient manufacturing methods, exploring the supramolecular assembly of materials, or how to better fight fungal infections.
Arun Maji earned his Ph.D. in chemistry, in 2018, at the Indian Institute of Technology. He has been named the Beckman-Brown Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellow for 2019.
Maji intends to use the Molecule Maker Lab to plan and create nontoxic amphotericin B. This fungicide is presently utilized if all else fails against obtrusive fungal infections. However, it is toxic to the point that it can't be given at portions sufficiently high to destroy such diseases. Worldwide, about 50 percent of the approximately three million people that are infected, pass away. He will work with biomolecular engineering professor Charles Schroeder, who is also a chemistry affiliate faculty member, and chemistry professors Martin Burke and Chad Rienstra.
With an endowment from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the Beckman Institute created the Beckman-Brown Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Fellows Program. It honors Dr. and Mrs. Arnold Beckman and the founding director of the Beckman Institute, Dr. Theodore "Ted" Brown.
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