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NSF Research Day Vermont EPSCoR Annual State Meeting and Grant Writing Workshop University of Vermont June 6, 2008 Dr. Joann Roskoski Executive Officer Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO). Biological Sciences Directorate. Vision Inspiring research and education at the frontiers - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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NSF Research Day
Vermont EPSCoR Annual State Meeting and Grant Writing Workshop
University of VermontJune 6, 2008
Dr. Joann RoskoskiExecutive Officer
Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO)
Vision
Inspiring research and education at the frontiers of the life sciences
Biological Sciences Directorate
Mission
To enable the discoveries for understanding life
BIO Support for Basic Research
NSF 67%
Other federal spending 33%
NSF 62%
Other federal spending 38%
Federal Support for Basic Research in Non-Medical Biological Sciences
at Academic Institutions
Federal Support for Basic Research in Environmental Biology at
Academic Institutions
Directorate for Biological Sciences(BIO)
Directorate for Biological Sciences(BIO)
Division of Environmental Biology
(DEB)
Division of Environmental Biology
(DEB)
Ecological BiologyEcological Biology
Ecosystem ScienceEcosystem Science
Division of Integrative Organismal
Systems(IOS)
Division of Integrative Organismal
Systems(IOS)
Research ResourcesResearch Resources
Human ResourcesHuman Resources
Division ofBiological Infrastructure
(DBI)
Division ofBiological Infrastructure
(DBI)
Division of Molecular and Cellular
Biosciences(MCB)
Division of Molecular and Cellular
Biosciences(MCB)
Biomolecular SystemsBiomolecular Systems
Cellular SystemsCellular Systems
Genes and Genome SystemsGenes and Genome Systems
Effective April, 2008
Emerging Frontiers (EF)
Plant Genome ResearchProgram
Plant Genome ResearchProgram
Population and EvolutionaryProcesses
Population and EvolutionaryProcesses
Systematic Biology and Biodiversity Inventories
Systematic Biology and Biodiversity Inventories
Behavioral SystemsBehavioral Systems
Developmental SystemsDevelopmental Systems
Neural SystemsNeural Systems
Physiological and StructuralSystems
Physiological and StructuralSystems
BIO 2008-2009 Priorities
• Life in Transition – Strengthening Core Programs– Origins – Energy– Adaptation
• Adaptive Systems Technology• Dynamics of Water Processes in the Environment• NEON
• The Life Sciences in Transition– Multidisciplinary Programs– New Centers
• Plant Science Cyberinfrastructure Collaborative • Center for Research at the Interface of the Mathematical and Biological
Sciences• Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology
Life in Transition
Biology is the narrative of life on Earth and the story of the unexpected…
Origins: How, where and when did life on Earth begin?
How did the biological complexity of life emerge from pre-biotic chemistry and geochemistry?
Self-contained – The Cell
Self-sustaining - Energy
Self-replicating – RNA, DNA
Evolving - Biodiversity
Open system chemistry
Self-sustaining biochemistry
Basic elements
DNA WorldRNA World
H2 + CO2 => [ HCO ]n
Self-replication
Ancestry of LifeHorizontal Gene Transfer
What we thought we knew: Genetic information flowedfrom parent to offspring,generation to generation
Darwin’s tree of life rooted to a universal common ancestor…
Sequencing of whole genomes revealed that genetic information has been transferred horizontally between organisms, some distantly related
LUCA
?
Archaea
EukaryotesAnimals Fungi Plants
Bacteria Algae
Synthetic BiologyWhat are the indispensable requirements for life?
?What are:• The physical rules for cell membrane assembly?
• The minimum gene set required to sustain life?
• The fundamental requirements for genome stability?
• Chemical constraints?
Membrane Encapsulation
Genome Stability
Are There Alternative Routes to Life?
New Chemical Theories
Eric Smith, SFI
?
Synthetic Biology
TheoryComputation
ModelingMolecularBiology
Evolution
Engineering Physics
Synthetic Chemistry
Genomics
design
fabricationtesting
Material Science
Chloroplasts
How is energy obtained and used by living systems to sustain life?
Understanding natural energy transduction systems will inspire the development of biology-based technologies capable of delivering sustainable, renewable, efficient energy.
Assemble the basics
PS IAu Ag
-/+
photon
e-
e-
e-
e-
Applied
Photosynthesis
Barry Bruce (UTN), NSF/EF
Diverse Chemical Sources of Diverse Chemical Sources of Energy for Living Systems:Energy for Living Systems:
Microbial Research to Enhance Our Understanding of Novel Energy Systems
Anna-Louise Reysenbach, Portand State Univ.Everett Schock, Washington Univ. St. Louis
Arsenate (AsO43-)
Iron (Fe3+)Manganese (Mn4+)Nitrate (NO3-)Selenate (SeO4
3-)Sulfate (SO4
2-)Uranyl oxide (UO2
2+)
Adaptation Transformations and Transitions in the Story of Life
Understanding life’s resilience and adaptation will reduce uncertainty about the future of life on Earth in response to global climate change:
Adaptive Systems TechnologyDynamics of Water Processes
in the EnvironmentNEON
Changes
Diversity
What will survive, and how?
Sensing the Environment
Complex Nervous System
Hydra vulgaris
Platynereis dumerilii
Eurycea lucifuga
Evolving Complexity
Movement
Animal model • The primary source of data and
behavioral phenomena
Mathematical model • Describes hypothetical
relationships between a selected subset of observations
Computational model • Explores the logical
consequences of the hypothetical descriptions
Physical model • Explores the behavioral
consequences of a hypothetical neural property operating in the animal’s natural environment
Adaptive Systems TechnologyAdaptive Systems Technology
Closing the Loop of Theory, Observation, Experimentation, and Technology
Four domains of neuroscience
D. E. Koditschek, ESE Department, University of Pennsylvania
Adaptation: Life in a Time of Adaptation: Life in a Time of Planetary ChangePlanetary Change
… We are only now beginning to explore the biological drivers of climate change.
CO2CH4
GOAL: Support research on the resilience that is conferred by the presence of living organisms in freshwater ecological systems.
Dynamics of Water Processes in the Environment
NEONBiosphere, Geosphere, Atmosphere
• Dramatic inter-annual variation is not totally explained by physical factors (temperature, rainfall)
• Do biological processes determine/impact this variation?• Which ones, how and how much?• Can knowing life’s impacts on the system improve predictions? Inform
carbon trading scenarios?
Potter et al. 2003
• Answering continental-scale questions: e.g. Will changing climate increase or decrease the biological carbon uptake or emission of the US and by how much?
• Requires measuring the drivers (climate, biological processes, land use change) and the phenomena (CO2 uptake or emission) over multiple spatial and long time scales
• As well as conducting controlled experiments to understand the mechanisms involved in observed changes
• And
• Existing infrastructure is neither optimally configured geographically nor operationally standardized to do this
Why Continental Scale Ecology?
http://neoninc.org/milestones/2007/neon-deployment-design.html
Nat
ion
al E
colo
gic
al O
bse
rvat
ory
Net
wo
rk (
NE
ON
)Experimental Design and Deployment
Transdisciplinary
Interdisciplinary
Multi-disciplinary
Disciplinary
Life Sciences In TransitionThe Role of Theory in Advancing 21st-
Century Biology
Catalyzing Transformative Research
National Research Council of the National Academies
2008
Multidisciplianry Programs• Dynamics of Coupled Natural and
Human Systems (BIO, GEO, SBE and USFS)
• Ecology of Infectious Disease (BIO, GEO and NIH)
• Human and Social Dynamics (all NSF)
“Plant Biology Jets Into Cyberspace”- Science Magazine
“Just as Google Earth lets you zoom in on individual buildings from space, researchers may one day be able to toggle between whole-ecosystem views of plants and the molecules that make them up with just a few clicks of the mouse.”
-Elizabeth PennisiScience Magazine (2008)
iPlant Collaborative A Look into the Future
• Partnership between multiple NSF Directorates and EPA.
• Goal: Support research on the interactions of nanomaterials with organisms, cellular constituents, metabolic networks and living tissues; understand environmental exposure and bioaccumulation and their effects on living systems; and determine the biological impacts of nanomaterials dispersed in the environment.
Center for Environmental Implications of Center for Environmental Implications of
Nanotechnology (CEIN)Nanotechnology (CEIN)
Center for Research at the Interface of Center for Research at the Interface of the Mathematical and Biological the Mathematical and Biological
Sciences (CIMBS)Sciences (CIMBS)
• Partnership between BIO and MPS (NSF), DHS and USDA to stimulate research at the interface of the mathematical and biological sciences
• Goal: To provide mechanisms to foster synthetic, collaborative, cross-disciplinary studies; enable plant and animal infectious disease modeling; and generate knowledge for policy makers, government agencies, and society.