Project Grant DP2GM170823
- The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering awarded the University of California Santa Cruz $234,750 on August 1, 2026, under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286) to develop a de novo binder-luciferase platform for multiplexed protein detection in Western blots and lateral flow assays. The project will replace antibody-based detection reagents with computationally designed, thermostable de novo...
- The National Institutes of Health Office of the Director awarded $672,000 to the University of California, San Diego on August 24, 2026, under the Trans-NIH Research Support program (CFDA 93.310) to develop synthetic uniRFP-based biosensors (SUBs) for real-time detection of small molecules in living systems. The award funds creation of an experimental platform and predictive machine learning algorithm that engineers the binding pocket of UNAG, a naturally occurring eel fluorescent protein, to...
- The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, awarded University of California Irvine $413,771 on June 1, 2026, under the NCATS program (CFDA 93.350) to develop an in vitro method for rapid antibody evolution based on functional selection rather than antigen-binding strength alone. The project, titled "Accelerated Antibody Evolution Under Functional Selection," will create allosteric modulators for G protein-coupled receptors using...
- The National Institutes of Health Office of the Director awarded the University of California Santa Cruz $790,502 on June 15, 2026, under the Research Infrastructure Programs (CFDA 93.351) to create a genetic resource of C. elegans nematode strains expressing endogenously tagged secretome proteins. The award funds generation of approximately 1,000 genetically tagged, stable knock-in stocks prioritized across three categories: 410 secretome proteins with human disease, aging, or proteostasis...
- The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering awarded the University of California, Santa Barbara $582,137 on September 1, 2026, under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286) to develop electrochemical aptamer-based sensors for long-duration, real-time molecular measurements in living tissue. The research aims to extend the in vivo operational lifespan of electrochemical aptamer-based sensors beyond their...
- The National Institutes of Health Office of the Director awarded the University of California Santa Cruz $731,646 under the Trans-NIH Research Support program (CFDA 93.310) on September 1, 2026, to design synthetic luciferase–substrate pairs for bioluminescent bioimaging and biosensing. The project, titled "Designing Biological Light from Scratch: A New Paradigm for Bioimaging and Biosensing," combines de novo protein design, synthetic chemistry, and deep learning to engineer...
- The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering awarded $579,935 to the University of Oregon on September 1, 2026, under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286) to develop a synthetic biology toolkit for use in animal models. The recipient will create a comprehensive platform for synthetic biology using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, including a flexible toolbox of synthetic zinc finger and dCas9-derived...
- The National Science Foundation Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems awarded the University of California Irvine $343,554 on May 1, 2026, to develop a directed evolution workflow for surface-displayed enzymes on bacterial spores under the Engineering assistance program (CFDA 47.041). The project will identify enzymes that function under harsh chemical processing conditions—high temperatures, extreme pH values, and organic solvents—by leveraging the...
- The National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded the University of California, San Diego $526,805 on July 1, 2026, under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859) to develop episomal single-cell reporter assays for measuring the activity of hundreds to thousands of regulatory elements with tissue-specific resolution in whole developing embryos. The research focuses initially on enhancers as critical regulatory elements controlling gene expression timing and...
- The National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded the University of California, Los Angeles $420,981 on March 1, 2026, under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859) to develop engineered enzymatic catalysts for asymmetric hydrogen atom transfer reactions in synthetic chemistry. The research integrates organic chemistry, protein engineering, bioinorganic chemistry, and computational modeling to design and evolve biocatalysts that enable...
The National Institutes of Health Office of the Director awarded the University of California Santa Cruz $714,870 on September 4, 2026, under the Trans-NIH Research Support program (CFDA 93.310) to develop bifunctional small molecules for biosensing and continuous enzyme evolution. The project addresses two bottlenecks in directed enzyme evolution: the low throughput of classical analytical methods, which explore only 10² variants per round, and the labor-intensive manual operations between rounds. The recipient will develop molecular tools—specifically bifunctional small molecules that engage two proteins and can be delivered into E. coli—to enable continuous phage-assisted evolution. This approach can explore approximately 10¹¹ variants with continuous selection over three days, and conduct hundreds of generations per day. The work includes a strategy for general small-molecule biosensing in E. coli and a platform to use bifunctional small molecules to control cellular processes, enabling high-throughput selection for enzymes that produce small molecules. Work is performed in Santa Cruz, California. The period of performance runs from September 4, 2026, through June 30, 2031. The award is a Project Grant, classified under the assistance type of project grant, subject to standard NIH peer-review merit criteria, annual performance evaluation, and three-year record retention requirements.
Mod # | Description | ReasonForModification | Federal Obligation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not listed | $714.9k | 9/3/26 |