Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The Ohio State University received a $410,893 Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), effective March 1, 2026, with completion scheduled for December 31, 2030. The award supports research to advance the discovery and biosynthesis of phosphonic acid natural products through genomics-accelerated methodologies. The project aims to establish foundational genetic, biochemical, and bioactivity principles for phosphonic acid natural products (NPs), a privileged class of microbial compounds characterized by unique carbon-phosphorus bonds with demonstrated applications as antibiotics, antivirals, antimalarial agents, anticancer therapeutics, and herbicidal agents. By addressing critical gaps in biosynthetic and chemical understanding of phosphonic acid NPs, the research will enhance the predictive power of genome mining approaches and unlock novel compounds from the substantial reservoir of uncharacterized biosynthetic gene clusters encoded in microbial genomes and metagenomes.

The project deliverables include fundamental research outputs such as universal genetic and biochemical principles governing phosphonic acid biosynthesis, novel natural product compounds suitable for biomedical and biotechnological applications, and enhanced genome mining methodologies for accelerated discovery of natural product leads. These research products will advance the understanding of microbial metabolic pathways and provide tools and knowledge to leverage phosphonic acid molecules and enzymes for therapeutic drug development and commercial biosynthetic applications across multiple disease categories.