Federal Grant Award Summary

The University of California, Berkeley received a $246,263 Project Grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2031. This award supports fundamental biomedical research investigating post-transcriptional regulatory networks and the Integrated Stress Response (ISR) pathway. The research will comprehensively map cofactors engaged by regulatory RNA-binding proteins and systematically perturb regulatory connections to understand how ISR dynamics control cellular responses to stress and environmental challenges. Through high-throughput measurement of thousands of designed variants across multiple conditions, the project will elucidate the complex feedback mechanisms that govern stress response dynamics and their protective or pathogenic roles in cellular physiology.

The funded research addresses critical gaps in understanding how cells rapidly modulate translation and transcript degradation to regulate protein synthesis in response to proteostasis challenges. By quantitatively characterizing the regulatory networks underlying post-transcriptional gene expression control, this work will establish foundational knowledge applicable to both normal cellular adaptation and disease phenotypes where stress response dysregulation contributes to pathology. The project integrates systems-level analysis with targeted experimental perturbations to deliver insights into how intrinsically disordered regions within regulatory proteins coordinate with core cellular factors to control adaptive cellular behaviors.