Planning Grant: Engineering Research Center for Polymer Enhanced Biology - CPEB

规划资助：高分子增强生物学工程研究中心 - CPEB

• 批准号: 1840477
• 负责人: Alan Russell
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: Carnegie-Mellon University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2020-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1840477&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Planning; Grant; Engineering; Research; Center

The Planning Grants for Engineering Research Centers competition was run as a pilot solicitation within the ERC program. Planning grants are not required as part of the full ERC competition, but intended to build capacity among teams to plan for convergent, center-scale engineering research.With an expected global population nearing 10 billion by 2050, meeting food, energy, and water needs has surfaced as one of the most profound challenges of the new millennium. With new technological advances, these significant global problems that threaten the health, wealth and security of the US can be alleviated by fusing biology and polymers in a paradigm shifting approaches where polymers are part of the solution instead of part of the problem. For example, polymer-enhanced cells hold the promise to eliminate the scourge of salmonella (causing 1.2 million illnesses per year in the US alone) contamination in poultry by increasing the stability of probiotics in animal feeds. Polymer-enhanced proteins may eliminate phosphate waste products in intensive animal farming (if unresolved the phosphate waste will render land non-arable by 2050) and combat pathogens that can rapidly decimate agriculture farms. Polymer-enhanced enzymes can decontaminate pesticides at the point of use before they contaminate ground water (pesticides are now detected in over 95% of ground water). Polymer-enhanced biocatalysts may be able to finally degrade and resolve microplastic pollution of our oceans (well in excess of 10 trillion particles contaminate water sources and only 1 percent of plastics contaminating our oceans are at the surface). This planning grant will be used to assemble a large team to develop and deploy biohybrid molecules and cells as key components in transforming problems of global significance. This planning grant will be used to formulate the strategy for the team, ensuring that the work generates pioneering science that impacts society.This planning grant will be used to assemble domain experts and use their knowledge to plan a complex team-based transformational program. They plan to build an extraordinary interdisciplinary team that tackles the major barriers that prevent fusion of biotic and abiotic systems. This grant will support the team building necessary to transform the focus areas of prediction, synthesis, characterization and utilization of biohybrids. The Strategic Planning Initiative will begin with four mini-retreats in designated Focus Areas. In each mini-retreat, a small group of specialists will meet to identify the barriers, solutions and people that will form the team. Next, two Global Impact mini-retreats will bring together leaders in polymer-enhanced biology with those in food, water and pollution threats to sustainability. The mini-retreats will serve as the starting point for the deliberations during the final planning session that will be used to develop the research, education, outreach and partnership consensus for an eventual ERC in Polymer-Enhanced Biology. Throughout the retreat and planning process, the plan is to focus on developing a comprehensive strategy in the four interconnected ERC foundational components: research, engineering workforce development, diversity/culture of inclusion, and the innovation ecosystem. The plan is to use new science and engineering to impact society through education, infrastructure, and innovation. Team-based science at the interface of chemistry and biology will deliver solutions to high priority problems of global significance.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

工程研究中心规划补助金竞赛是作为 ERC 计划内的试点征集活动进行的。整个 ERC 竞赛并不需要规划拨款，而是旨在培养团队之间的能力，以规划融合的、中心规模的工程研究。预计到 2050 年，全球人口将接近 100 亿，满足粮食、能源和水的需求已成为新千年最深刻的挑战之一。 随着新技术的进步，这些威胁美国健康、财富和安全的重大全球问题可以通过将生物学和聚合物以范式转变的方法融合起来得到缓解，在这种方法中，聚合物是解决方案的一部分，而不是问题的一部分。 例如，聚合物增强细胞有望通过提高动物饲料中益生菌的稳定性来消除家禽中的沙门氏菌污染（仅在美国每年就导致 120 万例疾病）。 聚合物增强蛋白可以消除集约化动物养殖中的磷酸盐废物（如果不解决，磷酸盐废物将导致到 2050 年土地无法耕种），并对抗可迅速摧毁农业农场的病原体。 聚合物增强酶可以在农药污染地下水之前在使用时对其进行净化（现在 95% 以上的地下水中都检测到了农药）。 聚合物增强型生物催化剂或许能够最终降解并解决海洋中的微塑料污染（超过 10 万亿个颗粒污染了水源，而污染海洋的塑料中只有 1% 位于地表）。 这笔规划拨款将用于组建一个大型团队，开发和部署生物混合分子和细胞，作为解决具有全球意义的问题的关键组成部分。这笔规划拨款将用于制定团队战略，确保这项工作产生影响社会的开创性科学。这笔规划拨款将用于聚集领域专家，并利用他们的知识来规划一个复杂的基于团队的转型计划。 他们计划建立一支非凡的跨学科团队，解决阻碍生物和非生物系统融合的主要障碍。 这笔赠款将支持转变生物杂交的预测、合成、表征和利用等重点领域所需的团队建设。 战略规划举措将从指定重点领域的四次小型务虚会开始。在每次小型静修中，一小群专家都会开会，以确定障碍、解决方案和组建团队的人员。 接下来，两场全球影响力小型务虚会将汇聚聚合物增强生物学领域的领导者以及食品、水和可持续污染威胁领域的领导者。 小型务虚会将作为最终规划会议期间审议的起点，最终规划会议将用于为最终的聚合物增强生物学 ERC 制定研究、教育、推广和合作共识。 在整个务虚会和规划过程中，该计划的重点是在四个相互关联的 ERC 基础组成部分制定全面战略：研究、工程劳动力发展、多样性/包容性文化以及创新生态系统。该计划旨在利用新的科学和工程通过教育、基础设施和创新来影响社会。 化学和生物学交叉领域的基于团队的科学将为具有全球意义的高度优先问题提供解决方案。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。