The U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (NSF TIP) has announced an inaugural investment of nearly $32 million to five teams across the U.S. through the NSF Use-Inspired Acceleration of Protein Design (NSF USPRD) initiative.
This effort aims to accelerate the translation of artificial intelligence-based approaches to protein design and enable new applications of importance to the U.S. bioeconomy.”NSF is pleased to bring together experts from both industry and academia to confront and overcome barriers to the widespread adoption of AI-enabled protein design,” said Erwin Gianchandani, NSF assistant director for TIP.
Each of the five awardees will focus on developing novel approaches to translate protein design techniques into practical, market-ready solutions. These efforts aim to unlock new uses for this technology in biomanufacturing, advanced materials, and other critical industries. Simply put, NSF USPRD represents a strategic investment in maintaining American leadership in biotechnology at a time of intense global competition. Researchers have made significant progress in predicting the 3D structures of proteins and are now leveraging this knowledge to design proteins with specific, desirable characteristics.
These advances have been driven by macromolecular modelling, access to training data, applications of AI and machine learning, and high-throughput methods for protein characterisation. The NSF USPRD investment seeks to build on this foundation by bringing together cross-disciplinary and cross-sector experts nationwide. The goal is to extend these advances to enzyme design and accelerate the translation of this work into widespread, real-world applications. Since its inception in 2022, NSF TIP has invested in initiatives that accelerate use-inspired and translational research and development to strengthen U.S. competitiveness in key technology areas. The USPRD initiative is one such effort, focused on advancing U.S. leadership in protein design and its commercial applications.
To support this goal, USPRD used an “Ideas Lab” approach, an interactive workshop that brings together experts and stakeholders with multiple perspectives to foster collaboration and spark innovation. Through this process, cross-sector teams from industry and academia co-developed innovative approaches to address challenges in biotechnology. To identify an aggressive yet attainable practical set of use-driven activities, along with the supporting infrastructure and ecosystem needed to implement them successfully.
