Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The University of Minnesota's Regents, Office of Sponsored Projects Administration, received a $492,931 Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), effective April 1, 2026 through January 31, 2031. This five-year research initiative focuses on developing multiplexed assays of variant effect (MAVE) methodologies to advance synthetic protein engineering by integrating cell context awareness into protein design and function assessment. The research addresses fundamental challenges in understanding how cellular environments affect protein performance, particularly for multi-domain synthetic proteins used in medical applications such as gene editors and chimeric antigen receptors.

The primary deliverables under this award include: systematic studies correlating protein molecular traits (such as folding stability) with cellular context-dependent functions across different cell types and tissues; analysis of multiple phenotypes to establish structure-function relationships and inform protein engineering strategies; and exploration of diverse biological systems to validate findings and develop improved synthetic proteins. Expected outputs include data-driven computational models, improved optogenetic and chemogenetic reagents, and enhanced cell type-specific gene delivery vectors that leverage cellular context information. This research directly supports NIGMS's mission to increase understanding of fundamental biological processes and lay the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention through investigator-initiated biomedical research.