ATLANTA — A $6.5 million federal grant from the National Institutes of Health will support new research led in part by Georgia State University’s Bingchen Yu to develop a potential treatment for a rare genetic eye disease that can cause progressive vision loss and blindness.
Yu, an assistant professor of chemistry and part of the university’s Center for Diagnostics & Therapeutics , serves as a co-principal investigator on the project alongside Tingting Yang and Stephen H. Tsang of Columbia University.
“This award is an exciting step toward developing new therapies for patients affected by best vitelliform macular dystrophy (BVMD), a genetic eye disease,” Yu said. “I’m excited to partner with my collaborators at Columbia University and look forward to advancing discoveries that will improve patients’ lives.”
The research will focus on the development and evaluation of compounds aimed at treating a rare a rare inherited retinal disease that affects the retina and typically begins in childhood. Currently, there is no treatment for BVMD.
“This collaboration brings together expertise across chemistry, therapeutics and vision science to address a critical unmet need,” said Donald Hamelberg , vice president for Research and Economic Development at Georgia State. “We are proud to see Georgia State researchers working to improve how people see the world.”
The grant also reinforces the growing national research profile of Georgia State and its Center for Diagnostics & Therapeutics , which brings together scientists across disciplines to develop new approaches for diagnosing and treating disease. Federal investments through agencies such as the NIH support scientific discovery, workforce development and innovation that can lead to improved health outcomes and economic impact.
“Dr. Yu’s success in securing this competitive NIH award reflects the energy driving research at Georgia State,” said Binghe Wang , founding director of the CDT, a Regents’ Professor of Chemistry, the inaugural Dr. Frank T. Hanna Chair in Medicinal Chemistry and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar . “It speaks to our commitment to tackling important, complex questions and moving the science forward in meaningful ways.”
This NIH R61/R33 funding mechanism is a two-phased, milestone-driven award to support the investigational new drug (IND) process.
A faculty member in the College of Arts & Sciences at Georgia State, Yu was recently recognized for his research accomplishments, winning the Early Career Research Impact Award for Natural and Physical Sciences at the 2026 Ignite Awards, which honor faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students whose contributions reflect the breadth and strength of research and scholarship across the university.
As one of the nation’s leading public urban research universities, Georgia State is developing knowledge and solutions to issues that affect communities both locally and globally. The university’s research enterprise continues to grow through strategic collaborations, discovery and investments in emerging areas of science, technology, social sciences and creativity.
For more information about Georgia State University research and its impact, visit research.gsu.edu .
Bingchen Yu
Assistant Professor
Chemistry
Bingchen Yu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Georgia State University. His research focuses on chemical biology and medicinal chemistry, where he develops innovative chemical tools to study protein–biomolecule interactions and advance drug discovery for challenging therapeutic targets.