This National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) Project Grant award provides $270,000 in funding from March 1, 2026 to February 28, 2029 to support a postdoctoral research fellowship focused on elucidating the chemical potential of the small intestinal microbiome. The research aims to enhance the mechanistic understanding of the interplay between the small intestine, distal gastrointestinal tract, and host by: Characterizing the composition and metabolic capabilities...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) provides $719,638 to Cornell University to conduct fundamental research on the nanomechanics of bacterial adhesion and growth on healthy and diseased human gut mucus. The research aims to determine how differences in the molecular structures of healthy and diseased gut mucus impact bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation. The project will use computational modeling and simulations to obtain...
The University of Illinois was awarded a $320,000 project grant from the National Science Foundation to support research titled "COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: THREE-DIMENSIONAL FLEXIBLE BIOSENSOR ENABLING LABEL-FREE SPATIAL MAPPING OF INTRA-ORGANOID FUNCTIONS." The grant period runs from February 15, 2021 through January 31, 2024. The funding supports the NSF Directorate for Engineering's Engineering program (CFDA #47.041), which seeks to improve quality of life and economic strength through...
The National Science Foundation awarded a $996,521 project grant under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to the Carnegie Institution of Washington for the period of April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2024. The goal of the research project is to scale single-cell physiology studies to better understand community stability in the natural gut microbiome. As part of this work, Johns Hopkins University will expand its microbiome curriculum to additional middle schools in Baltimore County...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant, awarded under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) program (CFDA 47.070), provides $168,690 to the Florida Institute of Technology Inc. (Florida TECH) to develop a theragnostic (therapeutic + diagnostic) system for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The project aims to model the complex interplay of host, microbial, and environmental factors that trigger IBD using data science, and then leverage synthetic biology and...
This $265,007 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) will support collaborative research to advance the understanding of bacterial swimming motion. The research aims to leverage robophysical modeling techniques from robotics to realistically emulate and study the complex interplay of physical and biological factors governing bacterial motility behaviors. Key objectives include elucidating how fluid mechanical forces shape the ways...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) will support a multi-year research effort by New Mexico State University (NMSU) to develop a mechanistic framework for understanding how the human body regulates digestion and nutrient absorption in the small intestine. The $285,292 award, effective from February 1, 2025 to January 31, 2030, will enable NMSU researchers to conduct advanced numerical simulations, theoretical analysis, and...
This $149,403 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Program (CFDA 47.041) to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NC A&T) aims to develop a "theragnostic" (therapeutic and diagnostic) system for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The project integrates data science, synthetic biology, and additive manufacturing to: 1) model the complex interactions between host, microbial, and environmental factors underlying...
This $183,926 Project Grant award, funded by the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), will investigate how bacteria move through porous environments such as tissue, gels, soils, and sediment. The research, conducted by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), will use 3D printing to fabricate porous environments and microscopy to observe how bacterial motility and collective behavior depend on the properties of the cells and the porous medium. The findings...
The National Institutes of Health National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded New Jersey Institute of Technology a $832,624 Project Grant under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859) to develop an automated microfluidics technology for minimally disruptive analysis of cells and fluids within living 3D cultures. The three-year project beginning July 1, 2022 aims to design a novel microfluidic plumbing architecture capable of performing thousands of XYZ...