The NSF issues about 400 Faculty Early Career Development awards annually. Purdue's 2011 recipients were Alina Alexeenko, Monica Cardella, Jong Hyun Choi, Charles Killian, Ramana Kompella, Yuan Qi, Burkhard Schulz, Olga Vitek and Yoon Yeo.

Yeo will use her grant to create new drug-delivery systems to help in the treatment of cystic fibrosis, the chronic lung disease caused by genetic defects. Direct delivery of drugs is challenging because of a thick mucous barrier that develops in the lungs as part of the disease. Yeo plans to create a layer of sugar-based biomaterial that can encapsulate nanoparticles and create a channel through the mucous as it dissolves. The sugars attract water and thin the mucous, allowing the therapeutic nanoparticle to slip through and reach the targeted lung cells. She is working to develop formulations that create fluffy particles that can be easily inhaled into the lungs. Yeo also is using the grant to create an outreach program to interest high school students in science. Undergraduates in the Engineering Projects in Community Service, or EPICS, program will create materials and activities for science teachers describing microparticles, their common uses and the chemistry involved.