The National Institutes of Health awarded its Director’s New Innovator Award to two University of Wisconsin researchers Tuesday morning, recognizing their research and awarding each researcher a $1.5 million grant.

UW researchers Douglas Weibel and Hongrui Jiang were among 77 individuals across the nation to receive the NIH’s prestigious award, according to a UW statement.

According to NIH, the award goes to “creative new investigators who propose highly innovative projects that have the potential for unusually high impact,” and includes a $1.5 million grant for each respective researcher’s work.

Weibel, an assistant professor of biochemistry, said he was thrilled when he heard of his award.

Focusing on bacteria, Weibel said his goal is to understand and develop new ways of assembling and disassembling their cell walls. His lab also works on projects that involve taking advantage of small molecules to regulate protein within the cell.

“Our lab works on understanding how bacteria control where molecules go within the cell, and we work on many subareas of this,” he said. “It’s a very fundamental question in science.”

Weibel said down the road, he hopes his lab will be able to lay the foundation for developing new antibiotics through this research.

“The cell wall is a great target for developing antibiotics,” he said. “We’re faced with this issue in which antibiotics are no longer effective against everything.”

Jian, a UW electrical and computer engineering associate professor, plans to use his $1.5 million award to research self-focusing contact lenses to correct vision in aging adults, according to the statement.

In addition to biomedical engineering, Jiang is affiliated with the Eye Research Institute on campus.

There, the statement said, he studies the development of bionic lenses for correcting an aging process stiffening the eye’s lenses and reducing the ability to focus, called presbyopia.

Jiang aims to create a prototype of a new form of contact lens, changing focal lengths and providing aid for both near and far vision in the same way a camera lens can through his research.

“We try to focus onto something, and then you change the focal length of the lens system, resulting in a sharper image. So why can’t we put a camera lens in our eye”? Jiang said in the statement.

The statement also noted Jiang’s project is in early stages of development. He said while the research team has thought through each step of the project, the research is still somewhat high-risk.

He said he was grateful NIH was willing to fund a project for someone who was early in their career and trying to pursue complicated projects.

Weibel and Jiang’s awards were conferred and announced Tuesday morning at the seventh annual NIH Director’s Pioneer Award Symposium in Maryland.

NIH is the nation’s medical research agency, as well as a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Jiang could not be reached for comment.