This $841,009 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences program will support research at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (Virginia Tech) to investigate the regulatory mechanisms of endosomal cargo transporters. The project aims to determine the molecular mechanisms governing the regulation of the endosomal cargo transporter TOM1, which plays a critical role in intracellular protein trafficking. Using a combination of biophysical, structural biology, cell biology, and computational modeling techniques, the research team will study how TOM1 function is impacted by phosphorylation and interactions with phosphoinositides, particularly in the context of bacterial infections. The award also includes a plan to recruit and train undergraduate students from Bennett College, a nearby historically Black college, through a new accelerated master's degree program. This work is expected to advance the fundamental understanding of intracellular protein trafficking in both physiological and pathological scenarios.