Center: National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences

国家分子和细胞科学涌现综合中心(NCEMS)是一个推动创新的全国性资源，它使跨学科的科学家团队能够合成不同的数据和计算方法，以获得对生命系统更深入、更广泛的见解。认识到生物学中最小规模的数据史无前例的增长中尚未开发的潜力，NCEMS将催化和支持一系列活动，以了解新的细胞特征和生命中心现象如何从分子的属性和相互作用中出现。最初，NCEMS将专注于表征中尺度上的新特性--定义为分子和细胞细胞器之间的空间尺度--以及它们对更高阶亚细胞和细胞系统的影响。该中心将通过加速跨主题的综合研究来完成这一使命，包括：(1)中尺度生物分子组织和功能的出现，(2)数据驱动的涌现特性的发现，(3)通过跨物种比较剖析涌现特性，(4)使用密集的中尺度数据对涌现特性进行建模，以及(5)应用包括机器学习和人工智能在内的交叉数据科学技术。NCEMS将实现其加快大规模合成研究并开辟分子和细胞生物科学新领域的愿景，方法是降低不同学科科学家整合不同数据的障碍，支持跨领域方法转让，并确保工作知识广泛可用。同时，NCEMS将通过将创新和包容性学习方法纳入所有中心活动，促进社区在数据密集型科学方面的培训和广泛参与。NCEMS是数据驱动的分子和细胞系统新特性研究中的一股变革性力量。该中心的科学愿景是了解新的生物系统属性在组成、空间、时间、能量、信息和运动的不同尺度上的出现。对中尺度现象的复杂性和缺乏了解，以及从分子到表型属性的大量公开可用的数据的可获得性，使这成为该中心理想的初始焦点。这些数据继续以惊人的速度通过下一代测序、质谱分析、冷冻-EM和-ET、成像和在许多条件下对不同生物进行高通量生化技术而产生。NCEMS利用这些数据，将来自物理、生物和数据科学的具有不同专业知识和观点的科学家聚集在一起，并为他们提供计算和人力资源支持，以解决最令人困惑的综合问题，并在这一领域寻求开创性的想法。具体地说，NCEMS支持社区开展团队和开放科学；通过由亚利桑那大学CyVerse提供的与云无关的网络基础设施实现协作；提供数据科学、机器学习、统计学和可再生科学基本要素的培训；并在全国范围内提供远程参与NCEMS研究的机会。NCEMS还在为本科生，特别是那些在STEM学科中代表性不足的本科生建立一个强有力的计划，让他们参与综合研究，并从导师和体验式学习机会中受益。该计划的最初合作伙伴包括克拉夫林大学、阿尔科恩州立大学和费耶特维尔州立大学。NCEMS的所有教育活动都强调社区的广泛参与，通过研讨会、培训活动和旨在培养一支胜任计算和数据科学的劳动力的研究型学习机会。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。

The National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences (NCEMS) is a national resource driving innovation by enabling interdisciplinary teams of scientists to synthesize diverse data and computational methodologies to gain deeper and broader insights into living systems. Recognizing the untapped potential in the unprecedented growth of data on the smallest scales in biology, NCEMS will catalyze and support a suite of activities to understand how new cellular features and phenomena central to life emerge from the properties and interactions of molecules. Initially, NCEMS will focus on characterizing emergent properties at the mesoscale – defined as the spatial scale between molecules and cellular organelles – and their influence on higher order subcellular and cellular systems. The center will accomplish this mission by accelerating synthesis research across themes, including: (1) emergence of mesoscale biomolecular organization and function, (2) data-driven discovery of emergent properties, (3) dissection of emergent properties through cross-species comparisons, (4) modeling emergent properties using dense mesoscale data, and (5) applying cross-cutting data science techniques including Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. NCEMS will realize its vision to expedite large-scale synthesis research and open new frontiers in molecular and cellular biosciences by lowering barriers to diverse data integration by scientists across different disciplines, supporting transfer of methodologies across fields, and ensuring that working knowledge is widely available. In parallel, NCEMS will advance training and broad participation of the community in data-intensive science by integrating innovative and inclusive learning approaches in all center activities. NCEMS is a transformative force in data-driven research on emergent properties in molecular and cellular systems. The center's scientific vision is to understand the appearance of new biological system properties at different scales of composition, space, time, energy, information, and motion. The complexity and lack of understanding of mesoscale phenomena and the availability of vast amounts of publicly available data spanning molecular to phenotypic properties make this an ideal initial focus for the center. These data continue to be generated at a prodigious rate through next-generation sequencing, mass spectrometry, Cryo-EM and -ET, imaging, and high-throughput biochemical techniques on diverse organisms under many conditions. NCEMS leverages the data and brings together scientists with diverse expertise and perspectives from the physical, biological, and data sciences, and supports them with computational and human resources to tackle the most confounding synthesis questions and pursue pathbreaking ideas in this area. Specifically, NCEMS supports the community in carrying out team and open science; enables collaboration through cloud-agnostic cyberinfrastructure provided by CyVerse at the University of Arizona; provides training in essential elements of data science, machine learning, statistics, and reproducible science; and offers nationwide opportunities to participate in NCEMS research remotely. NCEMS is also building a robust program for undergraduate students, particularly those underrepresented in STEM disciplines, to participate in synthesis research and benefit from mentorship and experiential learning opportunities. Initial partners in this program include Claflin, Alcorn State, and Fayetteville State Universities. All NCEMS educational activities emphasize broad participation of the community through workshops, training events, and research-based learning opportunities aimed at developing a workforce competent in computational and data sciences.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.