NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Leveraging Biocoronas for Enhanced Agricultural Nanotechnology

这项行动资助了2023财年的NSF生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大了生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。该研究金支持研究员的一项研究和培训计划，该计划将增加在生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。随着气候变化和人口密度的上升，预计全球粮食需求将大幅增加。纳米生物技术提供了可持续的方法，通过调整纳米材料来监测植物健康，并提供营养物质或遗传物质（RNA和DNA）来增加作物产量，从而帮助满足农业需求。植物通过形成称为生物冠的内部结构自发地对纳米材料作出反应。生物冠可以影响纳米材料在农业应用中的有效性，例如阻止基因编辑所需的遗传物质的释放。为了增加纳米材料在作物中的潜力和成功使用，研究员将描述生物冠的特征，并利用这些信息优化纳米材料介导的基因编辑。该研究员还将努力促进在东道机构的多样性，使用社交媒体，并通过外联到移民农场工人社区。该研究员的目的是从用遗传物质（如沉默RNA）功能化的纳米载体表面提取和鉴定植物生物冠成分。富集的蛋白质，脂质和代谢物将通过非靶向的多组学方法进行鉴定，数据集将被输入机器学习算法，可以预测各种农作物中植物生物冠的形成。此外，这些数据集将用于开发具有特定表面化学的基因编辑纳米载体，例如增强纳米技术摄取功效和有效载荷释放的单一蛋白质涂层，用于转录后基因沉默，这将使用RT-qPCR进行验证。该研究员将通过培训研讨会提高计算技能，在主办校园举办纳米生物技术研讨会，并领导针对有兴趣攻读STEM研究生学位的历史上被排除在外的群体的本科生量身定制的信息会议。该研究员将在专门的国际科学会议上并通过社交媒体平台传播该项目的成果。鉴于这一项目涉及农业生物技术的发展，研究员计划建立一个以辅导为基础的组织，向来自移民农场工人社区的学生进行科学宣传，该奖项的好处是让来自不受欢迎的社区的年轻人接触到与他们社区利益直接相关的研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2023, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. With climate change and population density on the rise, global food demand is projected to substantially increase. Nanobiotechnology offers sustainable approaches to help supply agricultural demands by adapting nano-sized materials to monitor plant health and to deliver nutrients or genetic material (RNA and DNA) to increase crop yields. Plants spontaneously react to nanomaterials by forming internal structures called biocoronas. Biocoronas can impact the effectiveness of nanomaterials for agricultural applications, such as blocking the release of genetic material for gene editing. To increase the potential and successful use of nanomaterials in crops, the Fellow will characterize biocoronas, and use this information to optimize gene-editing mediated by nanomaterials. The Fellow will also work to promote diversity at the host institution, using social media, and through outreach to migrant farm-worker communities. The Fellow aims to extract and identify the in planta biocorona composition from the surfaces of nanocarriers functionalized with genetic material, such as silencing RNA. Enriched proteins, lipids and metabolites will be identified through untargeted multi-omic approaches and datasets will be fed into machine learning algorithms that can predict the in planta biocorona formation in various agricultural crops. Moreover, these datasets will be used to develop gene-editing nanocarriers with specific surface chemistries, such as single protein coatings that enhance nanotechnology uptake efficacy and payload release for post-transcriptional gene silencing, which will be validated using RT-qPCR. The Fellow will enhance computational skills through training workshops, organize nanobiotechnology seminars held at the host campus, and lead informational sessions tailored to undergraduates from historically excluded groups interested in pursuing graduate degrees in STEM. The Fellow will disseminate the results of this project at specialized international scientific conferences and through social media platforms. Given that this project involves the development of agricultural biotechnologies, the Fellow plans to create a mentorship-based organization that conducts scientific outreach to students from migrant farm-worker communities, which has the benefit of exposing youth from undeserved neighborhoods to research directly relevant to their communities’ interests.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.