The National Science Foundation Division of Mathematical Sciences awarded Indiana University (Trustees of Indiana University) $149,773 on January 1, 2027, under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to develop mathematical and statistical tools for strain-level identification of closely related bacterial strains from pooled sequencing data.
The project addresses ambiguity that arises when bacterial DNA from multiple colonies is pooled before sequencing, a cost-saving alternative to processing individual colonies separately. Different strain combinations may explain the same pooled data, making strain-level conclusions unreliable. The award funds research that clarifies when pooled sequencing can and cannot support strain identification by studying strain reconstruction as a constrained matrix factorization problem. The work will produce documented research code and reproducible examples to support biotechnology workflows and microbial surveillance applications, and will support graduate-student training at the interface of mathematics, statistics, computation, and microbial genomics.
Performance takes place in Bloomington, Indiana, with a period of performance from January 1, 2027, through December 31, 2029. The assistance type is a project grant.