A chemistry professor will take the next four years and $750,000 to find a way to get a better look into mammals’ brains, according to a University release.

Peter Nemes, an assistant chemistry professor, received the Beckman Young Investigator Award presented by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, a group focused on funding research projects centered around chemistry and life science. Nemes’ project will look at a new way to “identify and quantify proteins expressed by a single neuron in the mammalian brain,” the release said. He’ll receive the $750,000 grant over the next four years.

“It is a great honor for me personally and for GW,” said Nemes, who is one of just eight researchers to receive the award this year. “It shows that the direction I’m taking to combine technology development and biology raises new potentials to advance human health.”

The project’s goal is to create a way to develop a technology that will allow scientists to observe neurons singularly rather than in groups. The human brain has about 100 billion neurons. The technology could help scientists better understand what’s behind disorders like schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and autism, the release said.

“Ultimately, we need a new instrument that can downscale chemical analysis to the level of a single cell,” Nemes said in the release.

Nemes joined the chemistry department in 2005 as a Ph.D student, under the advisement of chemistry professor Akos Vertes, who released technology in June to examine small molecules for dangerous materials. Nemes’ previous research at GW revolved around human disease, the release said.