directorate for biological sciences: research and

Directorate for Biological Sciences:Research and Infrastructure Investments

Dr. Jim OldsAssistant Director

National Science FoundationDirectorate for Biological Sciences

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(meters)

Biology includes biological sciences and environmental biology; excludes National Institutes of Health.

NSF Support of Academic Basic Research in Selected Fields

(as a percentage of total federal support)

Source: NSF/NCSES FY2014

68%

2

Applied

Basic

3

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Molecules

NanostructuresPolymersProteins

Populations Ecosystems

CellsOrganisms

Biosphere

Viruses

Biological Infrastructure (DBI)

Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS)Environmental Sciences (DEB)

Molecular & Cellular Biosciences (MCB)

Community

Emerging Frontiers (EF)

(m)

4

BIO FY 2017 Budget Request $ = MillionsTotal = $791M

5

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CellsOrganisms

BiosphereCommunity

Rules of Life

Molecules

Viruses

RoL =$13M

(m)

6

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CellsOrganisms

BiosphereCommunity

Rules of Life

Molecules

Viruses

RoL =$13M

(m)NH2—X•••X•••X—COOH

Amino Acid

7

Modeling and Theory Development

Experimentation

Observation

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CellsOrganisms

BiosphereCommunity

Molecules

Viruses

Rules of Life

(m)

8

Modeling and Theory Development

Experimentation

Observation

Rules of LifeBiological Infrastructure (DBI)

Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS)Environmental Sciences (DEB)

Molecular & Cellular Biosciences (MCB)

Emerging Frontiers (EF)

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CellsOrganisms

BiosphereCommunity

Molecules

Viruses

(m)

9

Origin of Life (Ideas Lab)

Rules of Life

Goal: Innovative approaches that explore the origin and early evolution of the two-polymer system that both drives and constrains life on Earth.

Impact: Understanding plausible pathways for the origin of life will contribute directly to understanding the indispensable properties of life on Earth and inform the search for life on other worlds.

10

Brains and Behavior

“I love watching these cells be active while the animal is behaving. It’s just remarkable to me that we can see the brain work and try to understand how it’s functioning.” – PI Melina Hale

Rules of Life

11

Rules of Life12

NEON $ = MillionsNEON = $65M

13

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CellsOrganisms

BiosphereCommunity

National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)

Molecules

Viruses

(m)

14

Availability of Data Products

National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)15

Current Construction Status(81 locations in 20 domains)


MacroSystems Biology and Early NEON Science AwardsExamples:• Collaborative Proposal: MSB-ENSA:

Forest Function from Genes to Canopies: Disentangling the fine scale spatio-temporal variation in gene expression and tree growth (Nathan Swenson, University of Maryland)

• MSB-ECA: Local and Migratory Spatial Foraging Affects Plant-Pollinator-Pathogen Networks (Erin Wilson-Rankin, University of California-Riverside)

• MSB-FRA Modeling Invasion Dynamics Across Scales (MIDAS) (Songlin Fei, Purdue University)


FY 2017 Request: Major Investments $ = MillionsMajor Investments

= $244M= ~31% of Total

Request

18

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Molecules



CellsOrganisms

Biosphere

Viruses

Community

Understanding the Brain (UtB)

UtB = $46M(Includes

$19.54M for BRAIN Initiative

activities)

(m)

19

BRAIN Initiative & Coordinating Global Brain Projects

(BIO=19.54)

Understanding the Brain (UtB)20

integrative

transformative synergistic

1. Innovative research resources, instrumentation, & neurotechnologies

Understanding the Brain (UtB)

2. Theoretical frameworks for understanding brain

function...

21

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Molecules



CellsOrganisms

Biosphere

Viruses

Community

Clean Energy Technology

CET = $79.22M

(m)

22

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Molecules



CellsOrganisms

Biosphere

Viruses

Community

Microbiome

Microbiome = $16.37M

(m)

23

Education, Training, & Career Development$ = Millions

24

Tools and Data

25

CyVerse

Platforms, tools, datasets Storage and compute Training and support

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CellsOrganisms

BiosphereCommunity

Molecules

Viruses

(m)

26

Science and Technology Centers

• Center for Cellular Construction • Science and Technology Center for Engineering

MechanoBiology• Science and Technology Center on Real-Time Functional

Imaging• Center for Bright Beams

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BIOLOGY IS THE ENGINE OF INNOVATION

Basic Discoveries

Tool Development Data

Organisms&

Ecosystems

Questions?

29

Key Questions How can computational modeling and informatics methods enable

data integration for the purpose of analysis and prediction of complex living systems?

Variation in traits expressed by organisms is a feature of all life; what are the genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors that explain its magnitude and occurrence?

How to predict the behavior of living systems, from single molecules to whole cells, whole organisms, and whole ecosystems? To what degree do group interactions and behavior affect phenotypic expression?

To what degree is an organism’s phenome a result of the microorganisms that live in symbiosis with it? To what degree is the production of a phenotype a ‘joint effort’ among genomes of different organisms?

Can we synthesize cells and organisms based on knowledge of genome sequence and physical features of other basic molecules?

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directorate for biological sciences: research and

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