This National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) Project Grant award of $181,210 to Carnegie Mellon University will fund research to understand the mechanisms that trigger pattern repair in fruit fly embryo development. The project aims to generate fruit flies with known patterning defects that are unable to activate the cell death pathway, in order to analyze the protein changes in cells selected to die. This will help identify candidate genes important for how cells determine if they have the correct neighbors, which is critical for producing robust developmental patterns in multicellular organisms. The research will utilize fluorescent reporters to track cell death-defective embryos and employ proteomics analysis to compare normal and mis-patterned cell death-deficient embryos. The project integrates an undergraduate "Protein Platoon" program to engage students in the authentic protein research. The award period runs from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2026.
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