NSF-BII: Integrative Movement Sciences Institute

肌肉是驱动动物非凡敏捷的活跃组织，能够在具有挑战性的环境中实现速度、耐力和机动性的壮举。了解肌肉是如何控制运动的，对于动物的表现和进化，以及对维持人类终生健康至关重要。然而，在复杂的环境中，肌肉在快速、非稳定运动中的功能不能被现有的模型准确预测。目前的理解受到领域之间孤立的限制，导致了以分子和组织为特征的“自下而上”的简化论方法和以动物行为为重点的“自上而下”的有机学方法之间的知识差距。综合运动科学研究所(IMSI)将通过连接“自下而上”和“自上而下”的方法来弥合这些差距，以整合机械、神经和感觉系统对运动控制的贡献。一个横跨全国21个机构的跨学科团队将领导科学研究和培训，以整合从分子到生物体、从纳秒到世代的跨结构水平和时间尺度的调查。该研究所的协作网络将在跨学科团队合作、数学建模、数据分析和开放数据共享方面对科学家进行培训。IMSI的活动将推动生物物理、生理学、生物力学、神经科学和工程学方面的创新。通过设计运动疗法、康复方案和活动辅助装置，了解灵活运动的肌肉控制在生物技术和生物经济学中具有广泛的应用。动态肌肉功能是全面理解运动的关键基础，但在快速和不稳定条件下预测肌肉力量输出仍然是一个根本挑战。IMSI将通过批判性地检查当前方法的假设，开发新的实验和模型来连接“自下而上”和“自上而下”的观点，并构建动态肌肉运动范式来改变基础科学、临床和技术应用，从而整合跨尺度的肌肉运动控制。交叉主题包括不稳定和扰动的运动，多尺度建模，以及统一无脊椎动物、脊椎动物和人类研究。研究核心包括：(1)内在肌肉动力学与纳米尺度的流变学和X射线衍射实验；(2)嵌入式神经机械控制，以研究内在力学和感觉运动网络如何塑造不稳定的运动；(3)韧性和多功能性，以确定肌肉骨骼特性和能力的变化如何驱动全身运动；(4)风险-回报和学习，以确定在驾驭环境风险和奖励时，经验如何导致动作优化；以及(5)运动系统中的多样性和趋同，以表征动态肌肉功能的演变。IMSI的教职员工拥有从肌肉蛋白质的分子生物物理学到动物生态学和人机交互的专业知识。这种以团队为基础的科学、近乎同行的导师和共同监督结构将培养社区，并为学员提供广泛的导师网络，从主要是本科院校到研究密集型机构，创建从本科生到教师的培训渠道。IMSI将通过为动态肌肉功能和运动的神经肌肉控制建立一个新的基础来改变运动科学，该基础整合了学科、生物体和结构规模。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Muscle is the active tissue that drives the remarkable agility of animals, enabling feats of speed, endurance, and maneuverability in challenging environments. Understanding how muscle controls movement is essential for animal performance and evolution, and for maintaining human health throughout life. However, muscle function during fast, unsteady motions in complex environments cannot be accurately predicted by current models. Current understanding is limited by isolation among fields, resulting in knowledge gaps between “bottom-up” reductionist approaches that characterize molecules and tissues and “top down” organismal approaches that focus on animal behavior. The Integrative Movement Sciences Institute (IMSI) will bridge these gaps by connecting “bottom-up” and “top-down” approaches to integrate the contributions of mechanical, neural, and sensory systems to movement control. An interdisciplinary team spanning 21 institutions across the country will lead scientific research and training to integrate investigations across structural levels and timescales from molecules to organisms and nanoseconds to generations. The IMSI collaborative network will train scientists in interdisciplinary teamwork, mathematical modeling, data analysis, and open data sharing. IMSI activities will drive innovation in biophysics, physiology, biomechanics, neuroscience, and engineering. Understanding the muscular control of agile movement has wide-reaching applications in bio-technology and the bio-economy through design of movement therapies, rehabilitation programs and mobility assistance devices.Dynamic muscle function forms a critical foundation for an integrative understanding of movement, yet it remains a fundamental challenge to predict muscle force output in fast and unsteady conditions. IMSI will integrate muscular control of movement across scales by critically examining assumptions of current approaches, developing new experiments and models to bridge “bottom-up” and “top-down” perspectives, and constructing a dynamic muscle movement paradigm to transform basic science, clinical and technical applications. Cross-cutting themes include unsteady and perturbed movements, multiscale modeling, and unifying invertebrate, vertebrate, and human studies. Research Cores include: (1) intrinsic muscle dynamics with rheological and X-ray diffraction experiments at nanometer to organismal scales; (2) embedded neuromechanical control to investigate how intrinsic mechanics and sensorimotor networks shape unsteady movement; (3) resilience and versatility to determine how variation in musculoskeletal properties and capacity drive whole-body movement; (4) risk-reward and learning, to determine how experience leads to movement optimization when navigating environmental risks and rewards; and (5) diversity and convergence in motor systems to characterize evolution of dynamic muscle function. IMSI faculty have expertise ranging from molecular biophysics of muscle proteins to animal ecology and human-machine interaction. The team-based science, near-peer mentorship and co-supervisory structure will foster community and provide trainees with a wide mentor network from a range of institutions from primarily undergraduate institutions to research intensive institutions, creating a training pipeline from undergraduates to faculty. IMSI will transform movement sciences by building a new foundation for dynamic muscle function and neuromuscular control of movement that integrates across disciplines, organisms, and structural scales.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.