NSF Day

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• NSF Day
• Biological Sciences Directorate

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Biological Sciences Directorate
Vision Inspiring research and education at the
frontiers of the life sciences
Mission To enable the discoveries for
understanding life
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BIO Support for Basic Research
Federal Support for Basic Research in Non-Medical
Biological Sciences at Academic Institutions
Federal Support for Basic Research in
Environmental Biology at Academic Institutions
NSF 67
NSF 62
Other federal spending 33
Other federal spending 38
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Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO)
Division of Environmental Biology (DEB)
Division of Integrative Organismal
Systems (IOS)
Division of Molecular and Cellular
Biosciences (MCB)
Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI)
Ecological Biology
Human Resources
Biomolecular Systems
Behavioral Systems
Ecosystem Science
Research Resources
Cellular Systems
Developmental Systems
Genes and Genome Systems
Plant Genome Research Program
Population and EvolutionaryProcesses
Neural Systems
Systematic Biology and Biodiversity Inventories
Physiological and Structural Systems
Emerging Frontiers (EF)
Effective April, 2008
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Division of Environmental Biology (DEB)

• Supports fundamental research on populations,
  species, communities, and ecosystems.
• Biodiversity discovery, phylogenetic systematics
• Molecular evolution, life history evolution,
  natural selection
• Ecology, biogeography
• Ecosystem services, conservation biology
• Global change, biogeochemical cycles
• Long Term Ecological Research (LTER)

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Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS)

• Supports research on integrative understanding of
  organisms.
• Understand why organisms are structured the way
  they are and function the way they do.
• Innovative systems biology approaches (i.e.,
  combined experimentation, computation, modeling)
• New conceptual insights and predictions that are
  experimentally verified

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Molecular Cellular Biosciences (MCB)

• Supports fundamental understanding of life
  processes at the molecular, sub-cellular, and
  cellular levels.
• Technological innovation
• Theoretical and computational aspects of
  molecular and cellular studies
• Molecular evolution
• Genomic approaches are encouraged in all areas

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Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI)

• Empowering biological discovery
• Support for enabling research activities such as
  advances in informatics, development of new
  instrumentation, and improvement of research
  collections and field stations
• Providing the expertise for the future of
  research through undergraduate research
  opportunities, early career opportunities to
  broaden participation and diversity within the
  biological sciences and improving the
  computational expertise for future biological
  researchers

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Realities
2009 Request
2008 Estimate
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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
• Multidisciplinary Centers
• Plant Science Cyberinfrastructure Collaborative
• Centers for Environmental Implications of
  Nanotechnology
• National Institute for Mathematical and
  Biological Synthesis

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Life in Transition
Biology is the narrative of life on Earth and the
story of the unexpected
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Origins How, where and when did life on Earth
begin?
Open system chemistry
Self-replication
DNA World
RNA World
How did the biological complexity of life emerge
from pre-biotic chemistry and geochemistry? Self-c
ontained The Cell Self-sustaining -
Energy Self-replicating RNA, DNA Evolving -
Biodiversity
H2 CO2 gt HCO n
Self-sustaining biochemistry
Basic elements
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Ancestry of Life Horizontal Gene Transfer What
we thought we knew Genetic information
flowed from parent to offspring, generation to
generation
Darwins 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
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Synthetic BiologyWhat are the indispensable
requirements for life?
Microfluidic System RNA Evolution
Membrane Encapsulation
Brian Paegel and Gerald Joyce Scripps Research
Inst.
Are There Alternative Routes to Life?

• What are
• The physical rules for cell membrane assembly?
• The minimum gene set required to sustain life?
• The fundamental requirements for genome stability?

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Genome Stability
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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.
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Microbial Research to Enhance Our Understanding
of Novel Energy Systems
Diverse Chemical Sources of Energy for Living
Systems
Arsenate (AsO43-) Iron (Fe3) Manganese
(Mn4) Nitrate (NO3-) Selenate (SeO43-) Sulfate
(SO42-) Uranyl oxide (UO22)
Anna-Louise Reysenbach, Portand State
Univ. Everett Schock, Washington Univ. St. Louis
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Adaptation Transformations and Transitions in
the Story of Life
What will survive, and how?
Diversity
Understanding lifes resilience and adaptation
will reduce uncertainty about the future of life
on Earth in response to global climate
change Adaptive Systems Technology Dynamics of
Water Processes in the Environment NEON
Changes
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Evolving Complexity
Sensing the Environment
Movement
Hydra vulgaris
Complex Nervous System
Platynereis dumerilii
Eurycea lucifuga
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Adaptive Systems Technology Closing the Loop of
Theory, Observation, Experimentation, and
Technology
Four domains of neuroscience
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 animals natural environment
D. E. Koditschek, ESE Department, University of
Pennsylvania
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Adaptation Life in a Time of Planetary Change
CH4
CO2
We are only now beginning to explore the
biological drivers of climate change.
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Dynamics of Water Processes in the Environment
GOAL Support research on the resilience that is
conferred by the presence of living organisms in
freshwater ecological systems.
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NEON
Biosphere, Geosphere, Atmosphere
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Why NEON ?

• 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 regional
  to continental scales over long time periods
• 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

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Life Sciences In Transition
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Multidisciplinary Programs

• Dynamics of Coupled Natural and
• Human Systems (BIO, GEO, SBE
• and USFS)
• Interdisciplinary Training for
• Undergraduates in Biological and
• Mathematical Sciences (BIO,EHR,MPS)
• Ecology of Infectious Disease
• (BIO, GEO, SBE and NIH)

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Plant Biology Jets Into Cyberspace
- Science Magazine
iPlant Collaborative A Look into the Future
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 Pennisi Science
Magazine (2008)
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Centers for Environmental Implications of
Nanotechnology

• Partnership between multiple NSF Directorates
  and EPA.
• Goals
• 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
• Determine the biological impacts of
  nanomaterials dispersed in the environment.

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National Institute for Mathematical and
Biological Synthesis

• 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.

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Summary Points
For new opportunities look for current
information on the web (www.nsf.gov) BIO Program
Directors can help you find the most appropriate
program(s) Read program solicitations and the
new Proposal Award Policies Procedures Guide
NSF 07-140
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