Project Grant 0743985

This $750,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program supports the development of a novel platform to enable rapid and robust identification of functional RNA molecules directly within mammalian cellular environments. The research aims to solve the challenge of RNA structure sensitivity to local environments that has hindered progress in the field of functional RNA discovery. The project will deliver a customized...

The University of Chicago will receive $899,998 from the National Science Foundation under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.049) for a project grant award titled "Nonenzymatic RNA Replication." Professor Jack W. Szostak of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University will lead research studying prebiotic chemistry relevant to the origin of life on Earth, focusing on how primordial RNA molecules could have replicated without enzymes. The...

This $299,999 National Science Foundation project grant under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will support research exploring the RNA world and RNA-peptide world hypotheses using a novel dynamic combinatorial chemistry system at the University of Houston, a minority-serving institution. The two-year project beginning August 1, 2022 aims to advance understanding of the role of RNA and peptides in the origins of life. Investigators will employ a system using benzonuclease to cleave...

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences provides $300,000 to the University of California, San Diego for research titled "EAGER: DEVELOPING A HIGHLY SELECTIVE, ORTHOGONAL, ENZYMATIC RNA LABELING TECHNOLOGY VIA DIRECTED EVOLUTION OF AN RNA TRANSGLYCOSYLASE." The period of performance is from August 15, 2021 to July 31, 2023. The funding supports research under the NSF's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074). The goal...

This $262,588 National Science Foundation Project Grant under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) will support research into prebiotic chemistry processes relevant to the origin of life on Earth. The Foundation For Applied Molecular Evolution, Inc. will use the funding to advance scientific understanding of geological environments on Earth 4.35 billion years ago that could have facilitated the emergence of the first genetic molecules. Key deliverables include completing structural analysis...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences awarded a $750,000 Project Grant titled "TRANSITIONS: EVOLVING OUR UNDERSTANDING OF DYNAMIC RNA FOLDING AND FUNCTION" to Northwestern University under the Biological Sciences grant program (CFDA 47.074). The objective of this 3-year award is to uncover fundamental principles linking RNA sequence to dynamic RNA folding processes and function in biological systems. The research aims to enhance the...

This $300,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences will support research into the structural biology of RNA and RNA-protein interactions through May 2024. Funded under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), this award to Vanderbilt University will utilize joint cryo neutron/x-ray crystallography techniques to better understand the importance of the 2'-hydroxyl group in RNA's expanded three-dimensional structure compared to DNA....

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) awarded a $305,892 Project Grant under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859) to Dotquant LLC, a biotechnology research and development company, to develop a new in vitro transcription kit for high-yield synthesis of chemically modified RNA. The project aims to combine the benefits of wild-type T7 RNA polymerase, which has high efficiency and low cost, with the ability of mutant T7 RNA polymerases to...

The Foundation For Applied Molecular Evolution, Inc. received a $426,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry on August 15, 2021 to support research exploring the diverse evolutionary power of nucleic acid libraries carrying different information content. The three-year award, scheduled for completion on July 31, 2024, will fund work under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049). This program aims to promote progress in the...

This $303,254 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology, under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), will fund research exploring the idea that the earliest adaptive evolution occurred through self-amplifying cycles of chemical reactions, rather than nucleic acids. Over a three-year period from August 2022 to July 2025, Michigan State University will conduct theoretical and laboratory studies to analyze how mixtures of chemicals could...