This Project Grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), provides $800,219 to the College of the Holy Cross to conduct research on the energetic tradeoffs in the facultative symbiosis between the coral Astrangia poculata and its algal symbiont Breviolum psygmophilum. The key objectives of this 3-year project are to: 1) quantify the effects of symbiotic state on the coral's reproductive investment and larval performance, which are key fitness...
This National Science Foundation Project Grant of $138,000 will fund research investigating the energetic tradeoffs of symbiosis and immunity in the coral species Astrangia poculata from August 1, 2023 to July 31, 2025. The award was made under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), which supports basic biological research to strengthen the Nation's scientific enterprise. Specifically, the fellow will conduct integrative transcriptomic, metabolomic, and immunological assays to test the...
The National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences awarded a $516,757 project grant to Trustees of Boston University to support research titled "COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: HOW DO SELECTION, PLASTICITY, AND DISPERSAL INTERACT TO DETERMINE CORAL SUCCESS IN WARMER AND MORE VARIABLE ENVIRONMENTS?" from November 15, 2021 through October 31, 2024. This project grant funding will support research under the NSF's Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050), which aims to strengthen understanding of...
This $276,000 National Science Foundation Project Grant, awarded under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), will fund research investigating the cellular mechanisms and evolution of coral-algal symbiosis. The fellow will characterize the symbiosome membrane proteome in the sea anemone Exaiptasia diaphana and coral Acropora millepora to better understand the fundamental processes governing the critical symbiotic relationship between corals and algae. Through techniques including...
This Project Grant award of $343,716 from the National Science Foundation's Geosciences Program (CFDA 47.050) will support a postdoctoral research project at Trustees of Boston University to investigate sex-specific physiological differences in coral responses to climate change. The project aims to assess shifts in sex distributions and physiological trade-offs across marginal and non-marginal coral habitats by integrating field and mesocosm experiments with genomic tools. It will examine...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) is funding a $783,165 research project titled "The Role of Diel Thermal Variability on Coral Performance" at Boston University. The project aims to understand how differences in diel thermal variability (DTV) influence the plasticity of coral thermal physiology and molecular function, focusing on the coral species Siderastrea siderea across sites in Bocas del Toro, Panama. The key...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $270,000 in funding from September 1, 2025 to August 31, 2028. The award supports a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (PRFB) focused on studying the chemical, molecular, and cellular processes involved in the formation of symbiotic relationships between cnidarians (such as corals) and algae. The research aims to uncover the mechanisms that lead to specificity in these...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) Federal Grant Program provides $495,000 to American University to conduct research on the microbiomes of coral symbionts. The project aims to characterize the taxonomic and functional diversity of bacterial communities associated with microalgae (Symbiodiniaceae) that have a symbiotic relationship with coral species. The research will isolate bacterial strains from these microbiomes and assess their...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $442,152 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to Arizona State University to integrate nanobiotechnology approaches to understand the role of nitro-oxidative stress in the coral-dinoflagellate symbiotic relationship. The 3-year research project aims to create a 3D bioengineered coral model to study the cellular responses of both coral cells and dinoflagellate algae under stress conditions that can lead to coral...
This two-year Project Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Biological Infrastructure provides $138,000 to uncover the molecular mechanisms that govern cnidarian-algal symbiosis using forward genetic screens. Funded under the NSF's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), this award will support research to increase scientific knowledge and enhance understanding of major problems in the biological sciences. Using forward genetic approaches, the grantee will conduct...
This $689,238 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports research on the energetic tradeoffs of coral-algal symbioses by the Trustees of Boston University. The project aims to examine how the facultative symbiosis between the coral Astrangia poculata and its algal symbiont Breviolum psygmophilum affects the energy allocation towards coral development, growth, maintenance, and reproduction. Key activities include: 1) quantifying the effects of symbiotic state on reproductive investment and larval performance, 2) constructing and validating a dynamic energy budget model for the coral-algal system, and 3) providing research training and education opportunities for undergraduate students. A sub-award to the University of California, Santa Barbara supports the further development and validation of the mathematical modeling framework. The project runs from Dec 2024 through Nov 2027.