A University of Iowa associate professor was awarded a grant to study the behavior of proteins, research that could be used for developing protein drug products.

Reza Nejadnik, an associate professor in the College of Pharmacy, will use the National Institutes of Health grant to develop and validate a new way of assessing monoclonal antibodies and other proteins. Monoclonal antibodies are man-made proteins that act like human antibodies in the body’s immune system.

The research will help improve efficiency in developing protein therapeutics and products.

“This will help us understand the behavior of proteins—monoclonal antibodies in particular—and is important for researching and developing protein drug products,” Nejadnik says. “It will impact the manufacturing, storage stability, and overall safety and efficacy of protein drug products as well.”

The two-year grant exceeds $427,000.