Project Grant R21AI113572

This three-year, $1.2 million Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Chemistry, under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049), supports the development of an integrated protocol for the computer-controlled synthesis and recursive optimization of macrocyclic oligourethanes as non-natural analogues of peptides for selective hydrolysis of nerve agent surrogates. Professor Eric V. Anslyn of the University of Texas at Austin will develop methods for...

This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074) provides $369,297 to San Francisco State University (SFSU) to develop a synthetic transhydrogenation module to enhance the production of valuable chemicals using engineered organisms. The key objectives are to: Elucidate the structural mechanisms underlying the autoregulation of the GltAB-GudB enzyme complex in Bacillus subtilis, which regulates glutamate metabolism and impacts...

The National Science Foundation awarded a $500,000 Project Grant to the California Institute of Technology under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.049) to support the development of new transition metal-catalyzed reaction methods for synthesizing alkaloids with anticancer properties. Professor Brian Stoltz and his team at Caltech will utilize palladium-catalyzed reactions to rapidly construct the complex molecular frameworks of targeted marine-derived chemical...

Graham Dobereiner of Temple University will develop organomolybdenum catalysts for the z-selective isomerization of terminal alkenes under this $383,284 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049). Dobereiner aims to advance rational design of homogeneous catalysts by establishing computational models to control stereochemical outcomes of alkene reactions. His work will strengthen interactions between academic chemistry and...

This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry, under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049), provides $1,445,996 to the University of Utah from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2025. The funding supports research by Drs. Eric Schmidt and Chris Hill to characterize the structure and function of novel polyketide synthases found in mammalian biology, including human biology. The researchers will use biochemical methods like kinetic analysis and...

The National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry awarded $525,000 to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania through the Mathematical and Physical Sciences federal grant program (CFDA 47.049) to support synthetic studies on herquline and lycopodium alkaloids from August 1, 2022 to July 31, 2025. Under this Project Grant, Professor Dirk Trauner of the University of Pennsylvania will develop new organoboron chemistry methods to synthesize the natural product herquline A, which has...

This $575,000 project grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Chemistry under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) supports research at Emory University to develop practical methods for conducting synthetic organic transformations using low catalyst loadings. The goal is to create highly efficient catalysts, such as rhodium and ruthenium-based catalysts, that can be used in extremely low amounts to enable over 100,000 reaction cycles while...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $543,183 Project Grant under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to the Research Foundation for the State University of New York (RF SUNY), which serves as the fiscal agent for SUNY campuses. The grant, awarded on October 1, 2023, supports a study led by Andrew Murkin at the University at Buffalo on the mechanisms and inhibition of organic and enzymatic isomerization reactions. The key products and services to be...

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will receive $495,000 from the National Science Foundation's Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049) to support research into designing artificial enzymes from June 2022 to May 2025. Dr. Albert Bowers and his team will develop a generalizable strategy for separating substrate binding and catalysis functions into distinct domains for peptide-based enzymes. They will use computational protein design with Rosetta to create...

This two-year, $200,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems will fund research at the Long Beach Research Foundation to develop multi-activity proteins for improved carbohydrate deconstruction. Specifically, the Foundation will produce and test 85 engineered multi-activity proteins containing two catalytic domains each. These proteins aim to increase biomass conversion for alternative fuels and...