Federal Grant Award Summary

The University of Missouri System, operating as the Curators of the University of Missouri, received a $400,337 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (Computer and Information Science and Engineering program, CFDA 47.070) awarded July 15, 2026, with completion targeted for June 30, 2029. This collaborative research initiative addresses a critical gap in computational biology by developing algorithms and machine learning (ML) models to predict three-dimensional (3D) structures of protein folding intermediates—the transitional conformations proteins adopt during the folding process. While existing biophysical and computational methods have generated extensive 3D structural data for native (final) protein states, comparable data for non-native intermediates remains severely limited, necessitating novel computational prediction approaches.

The project will deliver open-source, user-friendly software implementing computational methods to predict intermediate protein structures along folding pathways, advancing both algorithmic development in systems and structural biology and artificial intelligence applications in protein structure prediction. Research outcomes will support fundamental biological investigations into protein synthesis, design, and functional analysis, with direct applications to understanding normal cellular processes and misfolding-related diseases. The award includes provisions for graduate and undergraduate student mentoring and research supervision, integration of project findings into bioinformatics and AI graduate curricula, and systematic organization of experimentally determined structural data on non-native folding intermediates to support the computational prediction research activities.