Ukri/bbsrc-NSF/BIO: development of rich AI datasets for furthering life science research: capturing rich metadata to facilitate automated deposition of 3D biostructure data

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey received a $1.953 million Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Biological Infrastructure under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), effective August 15, 2025, with completion targeted for July 31, 2028. The award supports development of automated software tools and data science infrastructure to streamline the submission of three-dimensional biostructure data—including proteins, DNA, and RNA structures—to two major open-access repositories: the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and the Electron Microscopy Data Bank (EMDB). The primary intellectual merit of the project involves creating computer software to replace manual, time-consuming data contribution processes and implementing new information management capabilities that consolidate related structural investigations to provide comprehensive three-dimensional understanding of biological molecular systems.

The funded research deliverables will create rich artificial intelligence datasets and capture detailed metadata to facilitate efficient data deposition, benefiting millions of researchers across academia, biopharmaceutical companies, and biotechnology firms. The project includes a sub-award to The Regents of the University of California (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), effective February 19, 2026, for enhancing three-dimensional biostructure data deposition and processing efficiency through automated validation integration. Project outputs will support basic and applied life science research, undergraduate and graduate education, K-12 science instruction, and public scientific literacy initiatives in fundamental biology, biomedicine, energy sciences, and biotechnology.

Abstract

An award is made to rutgers, the state university of new jersey, to enable automated deposition of scientific data for three-dimensional structures of large biological molecules (e.g., protein, DNA, RNA) to two important open-access data resources. This information explains how cells in our bodies work at the atomic level and what happens when mutations change cellular function in cancer and other common diseases. IT will be made freely available to many millions of basic and applied researchers, working across the sciences in both academia and biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, contributing to human health. IT will also be made freely available to educators and their students, supporting K-12 and college teaching of the biological sciences, graduate and professional training, and workforce development. The information will also be used to elevate the scientific literacy of the public through outreach activities related to fundamental biology, biomedicine, energy sciences, and biotechnology. The intellectual merits of the project are twofold. First, computer software will be developed to streamline time-consuming tasks that are now carried out manually to contribute scientific information to the protein data bank and the electron microscopy data bank. These two open-access data resources have a decades-long history of making scientific data generated with financial support from united states federal government agencies freely available to users via the internet. Second, information management by the protein data bank and the electron microscopy data bank will be improved with new data science and software tools to package information from related structural investigations together, thereby providing a more complete three-dimensional understanding of how the natural world works and how changes in gene sequence lead to changes in function and cause diseases in humans, animals, and plants or promote higher yields of economically important food crops. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are planned for this award.