Federal Grant Award Summary

The University of Washington received a $317,439 Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), effective May 1, 2026 through January 31, 2030. The award supports the development of Smoldyn, a spatial modeling software tool designed to advance cellular biology research by enabling simultaneous simulation of proteins, filaments (including DNA and actin), and membrane dynamics—capabilities not currently available in general-purpose simulators.

The project will develop and implement two primary algorithm sets within the existing Smoldyn software platform. The first focuses on filament dynamics modeling, capturing bending, twisting, branching, excluded volume effects, and interactions between filaments and molecules or surfaces to support simulation of molecular motors, DNA transcription, and protein feedback mechanisms. The second targets membrane dynamics, including deformation, endocytosis, and cell division processes. The research team, which includes members from a laboratory combining experimental and theoretical work, will apply the developed software to model actin assembly dynamics and actin-driven endocytosis, thereby validating and directing the algorithm development. Upon completion, the enhanced Smoldyn simulator will enable researchers to model a broad range of elementary cell biology processes critical to understanding transcription, cell division, endocytosis, and cell motility.