Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) awarded a Project Grant of $124,767 to The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859) for a two-year period commencing May 1, 2026 and concluding April 30, 2028. This award supports de novo protein design research focused on developing computationally designed proteins that bind small molecules and catalyze chemical reactions. The research builds upon the investigator's prior success in designing fluorescent proteins (FABLE) and a Kemp eliminase enzyme (KABLE) that demonstrated catalytic activity substantially exceeding previous computational designs.

The primary research deliverable involves advancing fundamental understanding of protein-small molecule interactions through multidisciplinary investigation of protein dynamics and productive conformational states in engineered enzymes. This work directly supports the NIGMS mission to advance basic biological research that establishes foundations for disease diagnosis and treatment. The research will generate peer-reviewed publications, validated computational models, and potentially engineered protein variants applicable to protein tagging for fluorescence imaging and biocatalytic applications. Performance will be conducted at UCSF's San Francisco facility, leveraging the institution's established capabilities in biomedical research and protein engineering.