Dr. Kristy Ainslie, of the Center for Influenza Vaccine Research for High-Risk Populations (CIVR-HRP), received the 2023 Sato Memorial International Award. Dr. Ainslie chairs the Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics at the University of North Carolina (UNC). As a Professor in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, her work focuses on developing therapies for treating and preventing both infectious and autoimmune diseases. Through CIVR-HRP, Dr. Ainslie aims to improve vaccines, including working on a universal influenza vaccine, using metal-organic polymers and gels. 

The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan annually presents the Sato Memorial International Award to a researcher with notable achievements in the field of pharmaceutical sciences. The Sato Memorial Fund was established in the honor of Kazuko Yokoyama Sato, who travelled from Japan to the United States as an exchange student. Part of the Fund’s mission is to encourage collaboration among scientists from Japan and the United States. To represent this vision, Dr. Ainslie will travel to Sapporo, Japan to receive the award.  

To learn more about Dr. Ainslie’s work, visit her lab website and read the featured article by the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, here.