Ernesto Abel-Santos (Chemistry and Biochemistry) and his team have received a five-year, $3.25 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a more potent and stable drug to prevent clostridium difficile, or C. difficile. The grant is an R01, or research project grant, which is the original and historically oldest grant mechanism used by NIH. It is considered one of the NIH's highly competitive awards.