Dr. Qingshan Wei, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and faculty member in the Emerging Plant Disease and Food Security Cluster at North Carolina State University, has received a Faculty Early Career Development award, also known as the CAREER Award, from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award is one of the highest honors given by NSF to young faculty members in science and engineering.

NSF will provide $500,000 in funding over five years to support his project, “Smartphone-Based CRISPR Biosensor for Point-of-Care HIV Viral Load Testing.”

Wei’s project aims to study the fundamental properties of the CRISPR technology for applications in ultrasensitive molecular diagnostics and to design and develop a chip-based, smartphone-readable CRISPR biosensor for monitoring the therapeutic progress of HIV treatments. The results of his research will significantly improve the quality and outcome of long-acting HIV treatment

He received his B.S. (2005) and M.S. (2007) in polymer materials and engineering from Zhejiang University, and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Purdue University (2012). He is also the recipient of the Nano Research Young Innovators Award in Nanobiotechnology (2018).