The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $426,255 project grant under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to the University of Texas at Austin to investigate the evolution of immune system development across amphibian life stages. The key objectives are to: (1) use mathematical models and empirical data to predict how evolutionary history, pathogens, and environment influence T cell diversity within and among frog life stages; (2) quantify T cell receptor diversity across...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Emerging Frontiers, under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), provides $388,992 to the University of Central Florida (UCF) to investigate the evolution of immune strategies across amphibian ontogeny. The key objectives are to: (1) use mathematical models and empirical data to predict when evolutionary history, pathogens, and environment favor T cell diversity within and among amphibian life stages; (2)...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Emerging Frontiers awarded a $613,690 Project Grant to the University of Rochester to investigate the evolution of immune investment strategies across amphibian ontogeny. The project, titled "Collaborative Research: INTBIO: The Evolution of Immune Investment Strategies Across Amphibian Ontogeny," falls under NSF's Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program, which supports basic research to strengthen the nation's scientific enterprise....
This $355,123 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports research to genetically modify the immune system of the African clawed frog (Xenopus tropicalis) to improve its resistance to the deadly chytrid fungus. The goal is to identify how altering the frog's major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes affects its ability to fight off this pathogen and survive infection. The project includes a sub-award to the University...
The National Science Foundation awarded a $413,329 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) program to the University of Colorado Boulder to support research integrating immune system and microbiome function during amphibian development from September 1, 2021 through August 31, 2024. The award will fund research examining how the immune system and microbiome interact and influence each other during amphibian growth and maturation. A subaward of $50,000 will support related...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $494,261 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) to conduct research on frog skin evolution and adaptations. The project aims to: 1) quantify how frog skin has evolved over the past 200 million years in response to abiotic and biotic factors, 2) experimentally test the ability of anuran skin to decouple respiration and water loss, and 3) incorporate...
This $1,353,246 project grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Integrative Organismal Systems will fund research into the role of macrophages in amphibian skin antifungal defenses against the deadly chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center from August 1, 2022 to July 31, 2025. The research aims to define the interactions between frog macrophage subsets and Bd, examine the effects of Bd on interactions between frog macrophages...
This $240,000 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will fund a postdoctoral research fellowship to investigate the role of amphibian skin microbiomes in limiting the growth of deadly fungal pathogens. The research aims to explore the mechanisms by which certain skin microbes inhibit the fungal agents responsible for amphibian population declines, and to pilot the use of "antifungal probiotics" to protect...
This Project Grant award of $461,914 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports research to understand how adaptations in frog skin have evolved to balance the trade-off between oxygen exchange and water loss. The project aims to: 1) quantify how frog skin has evolved over 200 million years in response to abiotic and biotic factors, 2) experimentally test frog skin's ability to decouple respiration and water loss, and 3) incorporate...
The National Science Foundation awarded a $240,000 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to support a postdoctoral research fellowship exploring the rules of life governing interactions between genomes, environments, and phenotypes. The fellowship will fund integrative research from November 1, 2023 to October 31, 2026 investigating how genetics, environments, and microbiomes contribute to emergent host phenotypes in green frog tadpoles. Specifically, the fellow...