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Assistant Professor Anushree Chatterjee has won a 2017 Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The program works to identify and engage junior faculty members across the United States to introduce them to Department of Defense needs and opportunities. Through funding, mentoring and industry contacts, the program aims to help researchers develop their research areas in defense and national security contexts.

Chatterjee, who joined the department in 2013, focuses on developing therapeutic approaches to combat antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” that mutate rapidly, making disease outbreaks difficult to contain. Her lab also works to target and slow the evolution of such bacteria and viruses. Taken together, the dual approaches could help health organizations respond more quickly to epidemics and help the nation prepare for bioterrorism threats.

“Unfortunately, we are moving towards a future where we will face more and more of these kinds of outbreaks, and we need a solution—in real time—to counter these types of outbreaks,” she said.

More than a dozen current or former ���񱦵� professors have won the award since its inception in 2006.