This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation supports collaborative research on silk protein innovation and novelty titled "Integrating Across Disciplines to Decipher Silk Fiber Evolution." The $655,390 award will fund research from August 1, 2022 to July 31, 2027. The research team, led by George Washington University, will take an integrative approach examining the molecular, developmental, and functional basis of natural silks across diverse uses. A team of natural...
This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation supports collaborative research titled "SILK PROTEIN INNOVATION AND NOVELTY (SPIN): INTEGRATING ACROSS DISCIPLINES TO DECIPHER SILK FIBER EVOLUTION." With $124,867 in funding and a performance period from August 1, 2022 to July 31, 2027, the grant supports an integrative team of natural historians, molecular biologists, developmental biologists, and bioengineers combining expertise to study silk fiber function across diverse...
This National Science Foundation project grant award of $276,000 provides funding from February 1, 2023 through January 31, 2025 to advance research on spider silk structure, mechanics and evolutionary ecology under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074). Specifically, the award will support a postdoctoral research fellowship studying the unique horizontal orb webs and silk properties of the Wendilgarda clara spider species that lives at the air-water interface of streams....
This $270,000 Project Grant award was provided by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) Federal Grant Program. The funding supports a 3-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to study stress-induced phenotypic plasticity and generational effects in the silk-producing glow worm Orfelia fultoni. The research will characterize how larval behavioral, genetic, and glue biomechanical responses to varying prey availability can be transferred to offspring, with the...
This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation supports collaborative research titled "Evolutionary and Functional Trade-offs in Extreme Sensory Capabilities of Nocturnal Predatory Spiders" from August 1, 2021 to July 31, 2024 with total funding of $155,719. The research is conducted under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to advance understanding of major problems in biology. Specifically, the University of Massachusetts Office of Research Administration-Lowell...
This $176,198 project grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Emerging Frontiers under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074) will fund collaborative research on silk protein innovation and novelty. The American Museum of Natural History will integrate expertise across disciplines to decipher silk fiber evolution in hundreds of thousands of species. Researchers will examine the molecular, developmental, and functional basis of natural silks using genomics,...
This $1,500,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) program will support research at Northwestern University to develop innovative protein-based biomaterials. The research aims to (1) engineer mussel foot proteins with superior underwater adhesive properties compared to wild-type sequences, and (2) create resilin-inspired bioelastomers with high strength while retaining natural mechanical resilience. The proposed...
This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will fund collaborative research at the University of Puerto Rico to investigate how venom complexity has evolved in association with social behavior in spiders. The $501,107 award, which runs from Aug 1, 2025 to Jul 31, 2028, will support research comparing venom toxins and microbial communities in social and solitary spider species. The goal is to understand how the evolution of...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) Project Grant award of $240,000 provides funding for a 3-year postdoctoral research fellowship. The grant supports an investigation into the role of transcriptional plasticity in insect host specialization, focused on two species of pine sawfly. The research aims to identify the genes that allow insects to adapt to changes in their environment, which is important for understanding how organisms survive and adapt...
The National Science Foundation awarded a $900,000 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) federal grant program to The Johns Hopkins University. The 3-year award, effective September 1, 2025, will fund research to investigate the mechanistic roles of hyper-divergent regions in genomes and their impact on environmental adaptation. The project aims to use cutting-edge genomics, genetic crosses, and high-throughput experiments with nematode species to discover molecular details...