The National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology awarded The Pennsylvania State University a $714,745 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074) on July 15, 2022. The grant will fund research from July 2022 through June 2025 to identify the ecological role of spillover outcome on the evolution of disease emergence. The researcher will characterize virus dynamics and pathogen evolution following exposure of Caenorhabditis nematode hosts to...
This five-year, $785,103 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will develop novel bioinformatic tools and resources for genomic analysis of giant viruses. The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University will create computational resources to assess draft metagenome-derived giant viral genomes and integrate them into a taxonomic and phylogenetic framework. Tools to quantify the role of giant viruses in eukaryotic genome evolution...
This $388,863 Project Grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports a collaborative research project titled "PURSUIT: Aquatic Nematodes of the Nebraska Sandhills: Accelerating Taxonomic Discovery through Experiential Learning." The research aims to describe new species from three targeted nematode families, determine their spatial distributions across the Nebraska Sandhills region, and establish their taxonomic and...
This $270,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program funds a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship to investigate how host immunity shapes the evolution of pathogen virulence. The research aims to improve understanding of how pathogens rapidly evolve, including through changes in virulence, and how this process is influenced by interactions with the host immune system. The project will use mathematical models and laboratory experiments...
This Project Grant award for $1,500,000.00 was provided by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to the Rector & Visitors of the University of Virginia (UVA). The award will fund a 5-year research project to investigate the evolution of host dispersal as a strategy to avoid parasitic infections. The project will conduct experiments and field surveys using a nematode and its natural parasites to track the genetics and mechanisms of dispersal...
This Project Grant award of $273,556.00, provided by the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program, is funding research to quantify the rate and molecular spectrum of mutations in two nematode species, Caenorhabditis briggsae and C. brenneri, which are closely related to the model organism C. elegans. The goal is to understand the genetic variation and forces underlying biological differences among these organisms, which can inform broader questions about...
This three-year, $240,000 project grant from the National Science Foundation will support genomic research and public education on wildlife viral emergence in Cambodia. Funded under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), the award will enable a postdoctoral fellow to conduct metagenomic surveillance of rodents, mosquitoes, and the environment to detect known and novel viruses. Sequence data will be analyzed alongside climate and landscape data to model zoonotic spillover risk. The fellow...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $501,772 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to the University of Missouri System (doing business as Missouri University of Science & Technology) for a 3-year research project from June 2024 to May 2027. The project aims to understand how pheromone signaling and the dauer diapause stage of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans influence population dynamics under varying environmental conditions. Specifically,...
This $200,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will support research by The Research Foundation for the State University of New York (RF SUNY) to investigate the genetic basis of chemosensory behavior in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans. The project aims to understand how genetic diversity and environmental factors influence how C. elegans interacts with its surroundings, which is crucial for the animal's survival....
This National Science Foundation project grant award of $240,000 provides funding from July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2026 to investigate heritable viruses as hidden drivers of host phenotypes in aphids. The award is made under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to further the program's goals of advancing biological sciences and strengthening the scientific enterprise. Specifically, the fellow will conduct integrative research using aphids and their densoviruses as a model system to...