The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) received a $284,636 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences under the Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) federal grant program. The two-year award will support research establishing novel tools to artificially manipulate chromosome folding and modulate various genome functions, including enhancer regulation of gene expression. Specifically, the grant will fund...
This $663,956 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Chemistry, through the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) federal grant program, supports Professor Norbert Reich at the University of California, Santa Barbara in studying a new DNA recognition mechanism involving DNA strand separation. The key products and services to be delivered under this 3-year award include: Investigating the mechanism by which the bacterial DNA adenine...
This $573,937 five-year Project Grant was awarded on February 1, 2024 by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074). The grant will fund research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to understand how changes in DNA structure impact the behavior of synthetic gene circuits and gene expression more broadly. The project aims to develop a better understanding of supercoiling-mediated...
The University of California, Santa Barbara was awarded a $1,564,568 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Emerging Frontiers under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074) for the period of October 1, 2021 through September 30, 2024. The grant will support the collaborative research project "Epigenetics in Development and Evolution of Primate Brains," which aims to advance understanding of major problems in biological sciences through...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) in the amount of $246,424 will support research at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) to define the initiation of recombination at DNA double-strand breaks. The project aims to leverage recent discoveries around crosslink-stimulated recombination to better understand the mechanisms controlling the early stages of DNA repair through recombination. Key objectives include...
The University of California, Santa Barbara was awarded a $499,871 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074) for the period of February 1, 2021 through January 31, 2026. The grant funds the "RCN: ACCELERATING DEVELOPMENT AND EXPANSION OF A DIVERSE ENVIRONMENTAL DATA SCIENCE COMMUNITY AND RESEARCH AGENDA" project being conducted by UC Santa Barbara's Office of Research. The project aims to promote progress in the...
The University of California, San Diego received a $300,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation on February 1, 2021 to develop a high-throughput in vivo method for measuring transcription factor-DNA interactions. The grant supports research under the NSF's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) through January 31, 2023. The Biological Sciences program aims to advance the fundamental biological sciences and enhance understanding of major problems through basic research....
The National Science Foundation Division of Emerging Frontiers awarded a $3,000,000 Project Grant to the University of California, Los Angeles under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074) to support research on DNA and RNA condensate droplets for programmable separation and manufacture of biomolecules. The four-year award running from December 2021 to November 2025 will fund the development of portable educational modules on condensate science and molecular programming as...
This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), provides $300,000 to the University of Kansas Center for Research Inc. from February 1, 2023 to January 31, 2025. The award will support research investigating delivery and trafficking of DNA introduced to cells from environmental sources using the genetically tractable organism Caenorhabditis elegans. The project aims to gain new...
This federal Project Grant award, provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Integrative Activities program (CFDA 47.083), supports the development and experimental validation of computational tools for the design of DNA-based molecular devices and systems. The $300,000 award to the University of New Mexico aims to integrate high-level and low-level computational models to enable simulation-guided design of DNA nanostructures and molecular systems. The project will also...
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) received a $269,996 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences under the Biological Sciences (47.074) federal grant program. The award period is from May 1, 2023 to April 30, 2028.
Under this award, UCSB will develop new biotechnology to measure and engineer twisting and writhing in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) at both the molecular and genomic levels. Researchers will visualize and model localized DNA twisting in concert with gene transcription using techniques including magnetic tweezer fluorescence microscopy and cell-free reactors. New in vivo and in vitro methods will measure how localized supercoiling density alters nearby gene expression. Biophysical models will also be created to describe how spatial distribution, transport and insulation of localized supercoiling controls transcription in DNA. This work aims to provide practical understanding for spatially designing synthetic neighborhoods of genes and synthetic genomes. Educational outreach activities are included to promote understanding of DNA programmability and dynamics.