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.