
Two UT Dallas faculty members in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry —
Dr. Sheel Dodani BS’07 and
Dr. Gabriele Meloni — are recipients of three-year, $195,000 grants from the
Welch Foundation to support research geared toward improving the understanding of cellular function.

Dr. Sheel Dodani BS’07 and Dr. Gabriele Meloni, both assistant professors of chemistry at UT Dallas, received the NIH Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award for Early Stage Investigators to support their respective work.
Dr. Gabriele Meloni, assistant professor of
chemistry and biochemistry at The University of Texas at Dallas, recently received a
Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to further his work on understanding how cells recognize and selectively transport certain trace chemical elements across their membranes.
“We are studying a large class of membrane proteins that work as ion pumps and are present in all forms of life, from bacteria to humans,” said Meloni, who joined the
School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in 2015. “Specifically, we are looking at how transition metals — such as iron, nickel, cobalt or zinc — are recognized and transported by these proteins.”