Federal Grant Award Summary

Princeton University's Office of Research and Project Administration received a $451,000 Project Grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), awarded April 1, 2026, with completion targeted for January 31, 2031. The award supports research focused on the discovery and application of new enzymes for amino acid and peptide modification, addressing the challenge of generating bioactive compounds with the three-dimensional structural complexity required for selective cellular target recognition.

The research deliverables center on developing biocatalytic tools in the form of enzymes and metabolic pathways to enable scalable production of bioactive molecules that are currently difficult to synthesize through traditional chemistry. Specifically, the project focuses on discovering, characterizing, and engineering privileged protein families involved in amino acid and peptide transformation, with emphasis on non-heme iron(II)/alpha-ketoglutarate dependent enzymes including halogenases and hydroxylases. These enzyme tools will be engineered to enable the preparation of target molecules ranging from small-molecule nitrogen heterocycles and modified peptides to protein conjugates, ultimately advancing the development of new therapeutics for human medicine by providing synthetic strategies to produce complex natural products, peptides, and proteins at scale.