Project Grant DESC0025385

This three-year, $308,978 National Science Foundation project grant supports collaborative research between Professor José Gascón of the University of Connecticut and Professor Warren F. Beck of Michigan State University. The researchers will investigate the photophysical mechanisms cyanobacteria employ to protect themselves from excessive sunlight exposure. Specifically, they will determine how a ketocarotenoid bound to the Orange Carotenoid Protein serves as a light intensity and color sensor....

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) will provide $1,100,000 to the Trustees of Indiana University to study the chromatic acclimation process in the marine phytoplankton Synechococcus. The project aims to define the regulatory mechanisms controlling changes in the photosynthetic light harvesting antennae of this organism, which is the second most abundant photosynthetic marine organism and plays a critical role in global...

This National Science Foundation project grant award of $277,074 provides funding over three years from September 2022 through August 2025 under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to support collaborative research between the University of Connecticut and Michigan State University. The researchers will investigate the photophysical mechanisms by which the orange carotenoid protein in cyanobacteria converts between resting and active states in response to light...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $740,797 Project Grant under the Biological Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.074) to the Regents of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to develop and test new methodologies for the rational design of minimalistic light-switchable single-domain proteins. The goal is to engineer these proteins to bind specifically to target proteins in only one photoswitchable chromophore state, allowing for precise spatial and temporal control...

This $476,910 project grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Integrative Organismal Systems and Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) supports research examining light signaling in marine photosynthetic organisms. Specifically, the grantee Southern Methodist University will investigate the function of blue light sensing proteins called aureochromes that are widely distributed in marine algae. The university will study the photochemical kinetics, expression patterns, and...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $579,398 to Yeshiva University in New York, NY to characterize and engineer novel calcium-regulated photoproteins discovered in bioluminescent marine organisms known as siphonophores. The research aims to expand the repertoire of known photoproteins, which have broad applicability for studying intracellular calcium dynamics. The project will provide hands-on training for...

The National Science Foundation (NSF), through its Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) Federal Grant Program (CFDA 47.079), awarded a $250,000 Project Grant to the University of California, Berkeley on August 1, 2024. This 4-year grant aims to gain new insights into the fundamental mechanisms of thylakoid biogenesis, the process of forming the intricate membrane structures within chloroplasts that enable photosynthesis in plants and algae. The project will leverage a...

This $574,999 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) program will support a study led by Professor Jonathan S. Lindsey of North Carolina State University on synthesizing the key pigments involved in photosynthesis - chlorophylls and bacteriochlorophylls. The objectives are to streamline a recently developed synthetic route, explore a dehydrogenation approach to access different photosynthetic tetrapyrroles, and demonstrate...

Cornell University was awarded a $1,000,000 project grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences to support research titled "Engineering Photosensory Proteins Through the Better Understanding and Control of Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Reactions." The award period is from August 1, 2021 through July 31, 2025. The grant funding will support basic research conducted under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) to advance...

This National Science Foundation (NSF) Biological Sciences (CFDA 47.074) Project Grant award provides funding of $270,000.00 for a 3-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology (PRFB). The fellowship supports research and training that will contribute to biology in innovative ways by investigating the "cost of complexity" - how multiple functions of a gene can restrict its ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. The research uses rhodopsins from cyanobacteria as...