NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in Japan

2013 财年 NSF 东亚及太平洋夏季学院 (EAPSI) 在日本举行

• 批准号: 1310715
• 负责人: Jonathan Monk
• 金额: $ 0.51万
• 依托单位: Monk Jonathan M
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-06-01 至 2014-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1310715&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; East; Asia; Pacific; Summer

This action funds Jonathan M. Monk of the University of California, San Diego to conduct a research project in Engineering during the summer of 2013 at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology in Nara, Japan. The project title is "Improving Characterization of E. Coli Genes Using Genome-Scale Computational Models and High-Throughput Experimental Screens." The host scientist is Dr. Hirotada Mori.Nobel Prize recipient Dr. Jacques Monod said, "What is true for E. coli is true for the elephant," indicating that knowledge gained from an organism as seemingly simple as E. coli is broadly applicable to all living organisms. This project combines computational modeling with high-throughput experiments to improve understanding of how gene products interact to achieve cellular objectives and confer robustness in Escherichia coli. Traditionally, determining genetic interactions is a very challenging and time consuming process, but new technologies are changing this. Large scale double mutant libraries can now be constructed to screen for genetic interactions. Analyzing these datasets can be done efficiently by using biochemical network reconstructions that contain up-to-date information on molecular components and their interactions in an organism. This NSF award funds research that combines the Fellow's expertise in systems biology modeling with the expertise of the host institution in experimental double mutant screens to identify and better characterize the effect of genetic interactions on E. coli metabolism. The project is furthering the understanding of gene function and pathway architecture in this important model organism and could ultimately lead to the development of novel combinatorial antibiotic therapies. The discovery of new metabolic activities and genes will be useful for metabolic engineering, fundamental biological understanding and drug design where newly identified enzymes could prove to be novel targets for new antibiotic therapies to fight against pathogenic bacteria.Broader impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce. This NSF award represents an important collaboration between the Systems Biology Research Group at UCSD and the Nara Institute of Science and Technology. Both of these groups share the goal of studying the systems biology of E. coli and have complementary research expertise and equipment. The result is a productive collaboration that will last for years. The results of this award will also be used in education. The methodologies and results of this project will be incorporated into UCSD courses to teach the experimental aspects of systems biology and will be used for educational purposes in class projects. Additionally, important discoveries resulting from this project will be published in high profile scientific journals and new gene and protein annotations will be submitted to public databases to ensure worldwide dissemination of this information.

这一行动资助加州大学圣地亚哥分校的乔纳森·M·蒙克于2013年夏天在日本奈良科学技术研究所开展了一个工程学研究项目。该项目的标题是“利用基因组规模的计算模型和高通量实验筛选改进大肠杆菌基因的特征”。诺贝尔奖获得者雅克·莫诺德博士说：“对大肠杆菌适用的东西对大象也适用。”这表明，从像大肠杆菌这样看似简单的有机体中获得的知识广泛适用于所有活着的有机体。该项目将计算建模与高通量实验相结合，以提高对基因产物如何相互作用以实现细胞目标并在大肠杆菌中增强稳健性的理解。传统上，确定基因相互作用是一个非常具有挑战性和耗时的过程，但新技术正在改变这一点。现在可以构建大规模的双突变文库来筛选遗传交互作用。通过使用生化网络重建，可以有效地分析这些数据集，这些网络重建包含关于生物体中分子成分及其相互作用的最新信息。该NSF奖资助的研究将这位研究员在系统生物学建模方面的专业知识与主办机构在实验性双突变筛选方面的专业知识相结合，以识别和更好地表征遗传相互作用对大肠杆菌新陈代谢的影响。该项目正在进一步了解这种重要的模式生物的基因功能和途径结构，并最终可能导致新的组合抗生素疗法的开发。新代谢活动和基因的发现将有助于代谢工程、基础生物学理解和药物设计，在这些领域，新发现的酶可能被证明是对抗致病菌的新抗生素疗法的新靶点。EAPSI奖学金的广泛影响包括为研究员提供美国以外的第一手研究经验；介绍各自地点的科学、科学政策和科学基础设施；以及对社会、文化和语言的定位。这些活动符合NSF的目标，即在其科学家、工程师和教育工作者的职业生涯早期为国际合作进行教育，从而确保拥有一支具有全球意识的美国科学队伍。这一NSF奖项代表了加州大学圣地亚哥分校系统生物学研究小组与奈良科学技术研究所之间的一次重要合作。这两个小组都有研究大肠杆菌系统生物学的共同目标，并拥有互补的研究专业知识和设备。其结果是一种将持续多年的富有成效的合作。该奖项的成果也将用于教育。这个项目的方法和结果将被纳入加州大学圣迭戈分校的课程，教授系统生物学的实验方面，并将用于课堂项目中的教育目的。此外，该项目产生的重要发现将发表在备受瞩目的科学期刊上，新的基因和蛋白质注释将提交给公共数据库，以确保这些信息在全球范围内传播。