University Of Illinois At Chicago

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Uncontrolled wildfires are among the most destructive natural hazards. They threaten lives, infrastructure, and ecosystems. A critical but understudied driver of their spread is the ember, a burning particle that detaches from the main fire; travels with the wind; and ignites spot fires far ahead of the main fire line. Because ember behavior is difficult to observe during actual fires, it remains poorly understood and underrepresented in operational fire models. This Smart and Connected Communities Integrative Research Grant (SCC-IRG) project aims to develop a technological solution called Ember Intelligence. This is a new class of intelligent tools that detect, track, and forecast ember movement using drone-mounted infrared sensors, edge computing, and artificial intelligence. The broader objective of the work is to integrate fire science, unmanned aircraft systems, and machine learning into a system that supports real-time situational awareness, improved fire prediction, and more effective decision-making for communities at risk. By working closely with the US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service and public safety stakeholders, the project also engages with local communities near prescribed burn sites, such as Richfield, Utah, to align technology with operational needs and strengthen resilience. Educational outreach will involve learners from K–12 through postdoctoral levels, promoting engagement in STEM and wildfire response. To realize this vision, the project develops a distributed system for real-time data collection and spatiotemporal modeling of ember transport dynamics. Thermal imaging data collected by sensor laden drones will be used to detect embers, fire fronts, and terrain conditions, with a goal of detecting and estimating ember velocity vectors using deep learning methods. These signals will inform self-supervised and federated learning algorithms that model ember motion and identify likely ignition zones under varying wind and topographic conditions. To overcome the connectivity limitations typical in wildfire zones, the research creates decentralized learning and model-distributed inference schemes that enable local adaptation and collaborative intelligence across airborne and ground platforms. The system will be validated using high-intensity prescribed burns conducted through the Fire and Smoke Model Evaluation Experiment proscribed burn which provides rare, ground-truth data that can be used to calibrate and test the models under real operational conditions. Beyond wildfires, the methods developed are expected to have broader applicability in environmental monitoring, autonomous sensing systems, and emergency response under extreme conditions. 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.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Hodge theory is a branch of mathematics developed in the first half of the 20th century, which aims to study the non-linear geometry of shapes using linear invariants. More precisely, the shapes are complex projective manifolds and the linear invariants are Hodge structures. The famous “Hodge conjecture”, first presented in 1950 at the International Congress of Mathematicians, states that the essential geometry of a complex projective manifold is recovered by its Hodge structure. As one of the Millennium Prize Problems, this conjecture has attached to it a one million dollar prize for a solution. While complex projective manifolds involve a bit of abstraction to define, they are fundamental objects in mathematics and physics; for example, the “Calabi-Yau varieties” are a certain class of complex projective manifolds which can appear as the small dimensions of the universe in string theory. The main research goal of this project is to study the Hodge structures of Calabi-Yau varieties—to both gain insight into Hodge theory more generally for all complex projective manifolds, and to increase the depth of our understanding of Calabi-Yau varieties. Beyond pure research goals, the educational impact will be to develop an active community of young researchers and PhD students focusing on this circle of ideas. The project will continue lines of research of the PI on toroidal compactifications of Calabi-Yau moduli. Recent joint work of the PI with V. Alexeev constructs a modular toroidal compactification of the moduli space of degree 2d polarized K3 surfaces. One research goal is to extend this work to hyperkahler and Calabi-Yau varieties, with an eye towards understanding the combinatorial structure of degenerations. Additionally, the project aims to study and prove general results concerning variations of Hodge structure (VHS). Joint work of the PI with S. Tayou is advancing our understanding of finiteness properties of Z-polarized VHS, and it now seems within reach that conjectures of Deligne and Simpson on the algebraicity of the non-abelian Hodge locus can be resolved. The approach is novel, incorporating ideas from hyperbolic geometry. The PI will also pursue results about period mappings for Calabi-Yau variations of Hodge structure, such as questions of boundedness of moduli of Calabi-Yau varieties of various classes, and under what circumstances Torelli theorems hold. 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.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Commutative algebra studies mathematical structures such as the integers and polynomials, and has broad applications in computer science, engineering, and other areas of mathematics. Execution of the planned research will deepen the theoretical foundations of the field and address problems in related disciplines such as algebraic geometry, which studies the geometric objects associated to polynomials. A central focus of this research is on singularities, or points where the geometric objects behave irregularly (for example, a curve crossing over itself), using techniques from modular arithmetic (also known as clock arithmetic or prime characteristic algebra) and mixed characteristic settings (where a prime is treated as a variable). These approaches, including the use of perfectoid algebras, help bridge distinct mathematical worlds and enhance our understanding of both. In addition, the principal investigators are dedicated to promoting mathematics education, developing future generations of researchers, and assisting in building a strong STEM workforce in the US. Towards these goals, the principal investigators will supervise, train, and mentor graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The principal investigators will also facilitate seminars and workshops for undergraduate and graduate students. Recent advances, including past efforts of the principal investigators, have inspired a rapidly-emerging theory of singularities in mixed characteristic, bridging the existing notions from classical complex geometry defined using resolutions of singularities with those in positive characteristic commutative algebra that utilize Frobenius splittings and tight closure theory. Establishing finiteness properties is a crucial component in the study of singularities across characteristics. In prime characteristic, the principal investigators will study finite generation of the anticanonical algebra for certain singularities defined by Frobenius, and the existence and properties of boundary divisors in both prime and mixed characteristics, which in turn can be used to prove strong finiteness conditions. The investigators will also research log canonical singularities and ideal closure operations in the complex setting, better definitions of F-pure pairs in prime characteristic, and the theory of singularities outside the F-finite setting in prime characteristic. 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.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-08

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, causing memory loss and other serious problems that worsen over time. Detecting AD early is important, but most current tests identify the disease only after significant damage has occurred in the brain. This project focuses on the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, which is part of the central nervous system and shares many features with the brain. Because the retina can be viewed easily with imaging tools, it may provide an early window into brain health. The research team is developing a new imaging technique called intrinsic signal optoretinography. This method measures how different parts of the retina respond to light using fast, noninvasive imaging technology. By studying changes in the retina, the researchers aim to detect signs of the disease before structural damage is visible. These early changes could help scientists and doctors monitor disease progression and evaluate treatments, without the need for invasive procedures. The project also supports eye and brain research and will provide training opportunities for students in science and engineering. This project aims to establish intrinsic signal optoretinography as a noninvasive, quantitative method for detecting early functional biomarkers of AD in the retina. The research will use a custom-built, multi-modal optical coherence tomography (OCT) system that integrates polarization-sensitive imaging, parfocal light stimulation, and flexible spatiotemporal acquisition to capture intrinsic optical signals across multiple retinal layers. Three major neurovascular biomarkers will be studied in 3xTg-AD transgenic and wild-type mouse models: (1) photoreceptor hyperexcitability, (2) delayed and spatially spreading intrinsic optical signals responses in the inner plexiform layer, and (3) impaired flicker-induced vasodilation, measured using Doppler OCT. These functional biomarkers will be correlated with structural changes identified by OCT and OCT angiography, such as retinal thinning and microvascular degeneration. The imaging system is designed to support longitudinal studies across both preclinical and symptomatic stages of AD. Expected outcomes include new tools for early disease detection, preclinical drug screening, and longitudinal monitoring in AD models. Broader impacts include the development of a versatile functional imaging platform, interdisciplinary training of undergraduate and graduate students, and STEM outreach through hands-on biomedical optics education. 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.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Modern microelectronic computer chips include considerable low-level software critical to the system functionality. This software must be ready when the system is shipped to customers, and it is difficult to modify post deployment. One approach to ensure that the low-level software works as intended on the hardware is to produce a pre-production version of the chip for software/hardware testing, in a method referred to as "post-silicon validation". Post-silicon software validation is a highly complex and expensive activity requiring significant upfront planning and accounting for significant validation cost. Unfortunately, there has been little research in post-silicon software validation; existing research focuses primarily on functional and security validation of the underlying hardware. The project addresses this crucial problem via a comprehensive foundational paradigm and tool suite to streamline post-silicon software validation. The project’s key novelties include a unique architecture for observing hardware-software interaction in a silicon platform, methods to generate appropriate test inputs for exercising these interactions, and an objective metric to identify the quality of validation. The project’s broader impacts and significance include a pathway to derive high assurance in correctness of modern microelectronics systems that include tightly interacting hardware and software components, as well as creation of hands-on training modules to enable awareness in the problem for undergraduate and high-school students. The technical insight of the project is that a comprehensive post-silicon validation methodology requires cooperation of three components: an architecture for recording and transporting system events providing observability of the system internals during execution, a test generation methodology that is observability-aware, and a new coverage metric that accounts for the test scenarios being exercised and events being observed. The project realizes this insight through cooperative application of a novel architecture for collecting and synchronizing hardware-software events and a design automation flow that integrates this architecture with test generation and coverage calculation. The methodology targets validation of open-source System-on-Chip designs as well as emergent commercial systems. 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.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Project Summary/Abstract This grant will purchase a Bruker AVANCE NEO Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) console and magnet operating at 500 MHz proton frequency fitted with an automated sample changer and equipped with a cryogenically nitrogen-cooled detection probe. This autosampler-equipped cryo-N2 500 MHz NMR spectrometer will be used to advance the research programs of our synthetic organic, inorganic, physical, and chemical biology research community by providing basic critical infrastructure through the efficient and accurate analysis of small organic, peptide, and organometallic molecules. This instrument will be used by researchers who have significant NIH funding.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

A central theme in mathematics for centuries has been the interaction between algebra and geometry. The usual direction is to study the set of symmetries of a geometric object of interest. In geometric group theory, this becomes a two-way street in that algebraic objects (such as groups) are considered as geometric objects in their own right. Hyperbolic geometry is a subject going back to work of Bolyai, Gauss and others in the 19th Century, but it also plays a central role in modern geometry, particularly due to the influence of Thurston and Gromov. This project centers around a central question in geometric group theory, the Cannon Conjecture, about the difference (in three dimensions) between classical hyperbolic geometry and the coarse notion due to Gromov, in the presence of a large group of symmetries. The principal investigator (PI) will expand the work of the MSCS Undergraduate Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago, extending the reach of research projects to a wide audience of students there. In recent work of the PI with Haissinsky, Manning, Osajda, Sisto and Walsh, the PI has developed a theory of “drilling” residually finite hyperbolic groups with two-sphere boundary. This reduced the Cannon Conjecture to a relatively hyperbolic version, which should be more tractable since it corresponds to manifolds with boundary. In this project, the PI will extend this work in three directions. In work with Walsh, the PI will use tools from drilling to develop a coarse version of Calegari-Gabai’s Shrinkwrapping, and prove that in a residually finite hyperbolic group with two-sphere boundary, a surface subgroup is either quasi-convex, or a virtual fiber. In work with Manning, the PI will extend the work from the Drilling project in order to drill a graph instead of a curve, thereby reducing the Cannon Conjecture to a conjecture of Kapovich-Kleiner about hyperbolic groups with Sierpinski Carpet boundary. With Wilton, the PI will develop a notion of coarse sectional curvature, with applications to coherence and local quasi-convexity of certain hyperbolic groups, particularly those with Sierpinski Carpet boundary. 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.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Project Abstract We propose to develop a microfluidic device for direct personalized immunotherapy screening on a core need biopsy. Since a number of various immunotherapy have been approved for cancer treatment, it is crucial to select the right treatment among many immunotherapy options for a successful cancer therapy. Although tissue microfluidic devices have shown potential as chemotherapy screening tools, none are suitable for personalized immunotherapy screening. In this project, we will 1) develop a ‘core needle biopsy’ microfluidic cassette and protocols for functional immune assays and 2) validate the microfluidic approach for screening immune checkpoint blockade therapy with core needle biopsies from mouse and PDX breast tumors. We believe the microfluidic immunotherapy screening on individual cancer patients’ tumor core biopsies will provide solid guidance to oncologists in choosing the right immunotherapies for their patients.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2025-07

PROJECT SUMMARY A healthy gut microbiota is a diverse microbial community that prevents colonization by invading pathogens, termed “colonization resistance.” Acinetobacter baumannii is a global public health threat due to its high rates of multidrug resistance and rapid spread in healthcare facilities by persistence in reservoirs including asymptomatic colonization of the gut. Asymptomatic gut colonization by A. baumannii dramatically increases the risk of clinical infection, emphasizing the potential impact on preventing A. baumannii infections by disrupting colonization. A. baumannii gut colonization is associated with antibiotic treatments, altered nutrition including tube feeding, illness, and hospitalization, suggesting there are multiple mechanisms to disrupt or bypass microbiota-mediated colonization resistance. We developed a post-antibiotics mouse model of A. baumannii gut colonization and determined that competition for nutrient niches is a major mechanism of microbiota-mediated colonization resistance. An emerging paradigm is that colonization resistance to invading microbes is conferred by occupation of all available nutrient niches by a complex microbiota that synergizes with phylogenetically-related “keystone species” that encode similar metabolic functions to the pathogen. However, A. baumannii metabolism fundamentally differs from the most closely related gut resident Gammaproteobacteria. Therefore, it is not known which gut resident microbes may serve as keystone species to synergize with a diverse microbiota to resist colonization to A. baumannii. We propose a model in which a complex resident microbiota competitively excludes A. baumannii from preferred nutrient niches, and A. baumannii overcomes microbiota-mediated colonization resistance by antibiotic disruption of the microbiota community or nutritional perturbations. Experiments in this proposal will identify keystone species that synergize with microbiota communities to confer colonization resistance, define nutrient niches from which A. baumannii is excluded by intact or disrupted microbiota, and determine whether nutritional perturbations that increase nutrient niches utilized by A. baumannii can overcome antibiotic resistance in the presence of an intact microbiota (without antibiotics). We expect completion of these experiments will provide conceptual advances to expand the paradigm of colonization resistance to invading opportunistic pathogens. Furthermore, the findings from this proposal will lay the foundation for development of new strategies and treatments to prevent A. baumannii colonization, disrupt spread, and prevent infections.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Project Summary Infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus remain one of the most significant burdens to human health with ~750,000 associated deaths worldwide reported in 2019; a third of which were directly attributed to antimicrobial resistance. Many therapeutics that target peptidoglycan synthesis are ineffective against S. aureus on account of these resistance adaptations. In the absence of effective antimicrobials, the host depends on rapid detection by the immune system to provide protection against S. aureus infection. However, this response must be calibrated to balance the beneficial outcomes of inflammation on infection clearance with the pathological consequences of excessive inflammation that include tissue damage and compromised infection resolution. A portion of the host inflammatory response against S. aureus is incited by peptidoglycan, yet we lack a molecular understanding of how peptidoglycan recognition shapes the balance between immune-mediated clearance of microbes and inflammatory pathology. One of the primary cytokines required for the host inflammatory response to S. aureus is IL-1β, yet we also do not know how S. aureus calibrates IL-1β responses to persist during infection. We recently tested if S. aureus peptidoglycan modifying enzymes known as glucosaminidases shape innate immune responses to S. aureus and identified the staphylococcal N-acetyl glucosaminidase B, SagB, as a central mediator IL-1β maturation by immune cells. SagB appears to promote IL-1β production from innate cells by processing peptidoglycan to shortened lengths that are normally required to establish cell wall rigidity and bacterial cell size. SagB-mediated IL-1β production was independent of canonical pattern recognition receptors that recognize Gram positive peptidoglycan as well as the NLRP3 inflammasome. Instead, infection of macrophages with a ∆sagB mutant led to reduced caspase-1/11-independent cleavage of pro-IL-1β and its accumulation in the macrophage cytosol. Furthermore, SagB was required for virulence in systemic infection and promoted IL-1β production and inflammatory pathology in a skin and soft tissue infection model. Our supporting data suggests that SagB-mediated processing of peptidoglycan can offset the balance between beneficial and pathological inflammation through a previously undescribed mechanism of IL-1β maturation. We hypothesize that SagB processes peptidoglycan to a biologically active short glycan required for host induction of IL-1β. Furthermore, we hypothesize SagB-mediated IL-1β production by immune cells occurs via a non- canonical pathway that drives maturation and possibly release and promotes inflammatory pathology and infection in vivo. Aim 1 will determine how and where SagB-modified peptidoglycan products are recognized by innate immune cells and determine how peptidoglycan cross-linking and glycan length drive recognition. Aim 2 will investigate the mechanism of SagB-dependent IL-1β maturation and release. Aim 3 will establish how SagB promotes infection during local and disseminated infection and will ascertain how peptidoglycan synthesis enzymes or cell wall targeting antibiotics interface with SagB to promote infection.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Enter the text here that is the new abstract information for your application. This section must be no longer than 30 lines of text. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive, age-associated condition that is heterogeneous in both its clinical presentations and histopathological features. While mitochondrial function decline contributes to development of CKD, the implications of mitochondrial genomic characteristics in CKD have not been fully elucidated. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) copy number (-CN) and heteroplasmy (-Het) are emerging indicators of mitochondrial quantity and integrity, respectively, that have been linked to multiple chronic conditions. Importantly, mtDNA-CN and -Het are dynamic measures that may be modifiable. Despite known associations of mitochondrial function with CKD, few studies have examined the relationship between mtDNA-CN or -Het and CKD. Furthermore, mtDNA-CN and -Het have yet to be studied together in relation to kidney tissue-derived histopathological lesions. To address this knowledge gap, we propose the first study to investigate associations of both mtDNA-CN and -Het with CKD and kidney histopathological lesions in large cohort studies. We will leverage existing whole genome sequencing (WGS) and kidney function data from participants in the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program and the Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP). The two programs provide unique resources: TOPMed includes longitudinal kidney function data and readily available mtDNA-CN and -Het previously estimated from WGS in 24,048 participants, while KPMP includes histopathological characterization of kidney biopsies in addition to WGS and kidney function data from 385 participants. Together, the rich resources of TOPMed and KPMP will enable us to test our hypothesis that reduced mtDNA-CN and increased mtDNA-Het are associated with CKD. With data from TOPMed participants, we will test prospective associations of mtDNA-CN and -Het with kidney function decline and incident CKD (Aim 1). With data from KPMP participants, we will assess the relationship of mtDNA-CN and -Het with number and severity of kidney biopsy-derived histopathological lesions (Aim 2). Conducting the proposed research in TOPMed and KPMP will allow us to evaluate associations of mtDNA-CN and -Het with CKD in a large study population, broadening applicability of our findings. In total, study results may shed light on mitochondrial features underlying CKD and guide the development of novel biomarker or therapeutic strategies to treat CKD. Completion of the proposed study aims within a collaborative clinical division under the mentorship of a multi-disciplinary team of experts in multi-omics epidemiology, clinical nephrology research, biostatistics, population health research, mitochondrial genomics, and biomarkers of kidney histopathology will provide the applicant with an excellent foundation for becoming a well-rounded clinician-scientist.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

Thermal management of nanodevices requires a solid understanding of radiative heat transfer in reduced dimensions. To date, experiments involving radiative heat transfer have been limited by a focus on two-body systems. This CAREER program will explore the potential of systems containing more than two objects (i.e., multi-body systems) to lead to new physical and transport behaviors and, as a result, enable new applications in domains of national importance such as aerospace electronics, energy conversion technology, and information processing. To create these new technologies, it is essential to experimentally study and understand nanoscale radiative heat transfer between multiple objects and explore its use for improving heat exchange and thermal control. Thus, a primary outcome of this research will be a novel technique that enables the study of nanoscale radiative heat transfer among multiple objects. In addition to providing the fundamental knowledge necessary to advance thermal control at the nanoscale, this program will implement an innovative educational platform that promotes practical workforce development in academia by bridging the gap between academic work and industrial problems and stimulates curiosity among K-12 students in exploring engineering careers. This CAREER program will apply the physics of radiative transport in multi-bodies to solve thermal control problems in nanodevices. Specifically, this research will experimentally uncover the governing physics that drive electromagnetic waves-matter interactions in multi-body systems to identify the contributing factors in near-field radiative heat transfer (NFRHT). This work will provide new knowledge critical to the development of next-generation nanodevices by: (1) understanding the effect of structural factors on NFRHT in multi-bodies and (2) elucidating the role of multi-body physics in NFRHT for active thermal management. Significant structural and material factors in the spatial confinement of evanescent photons between multi-bodies will be identified through precision heat transfer measurements. Findings will provide in-depth understanding on how multiple interactive objects within micro/nano-dimensions impact radiative transport mechanisms—knowledge that will have far-reaching implications for advancing the thermal management of state-of-the-art high-power systems in industrial and technological applications. This research is integrated with education objectives to: (1) create an Academic-Industry Bridge (AIB) initiative for undergraduate and graduate students and (2) extend the AIB initiative to include an interactive platform for hands-on research projects for K- 12 students. Collaborations with Navajo Technical University and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will ensure engagement with diverse audiences. This project is jointly funded by the Thermal Transport Processes Program in the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBE) Division of the Engineering Directorate, and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). 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.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

The physical world is compositional. A scene is composed of various objects arranged in a way that is governed by physical laws. Each object consists of distinct parts that determine its functionality and affordances. For example, in a scene, the laws of gravity mean that chairs will be arranged on the floor and the rules of functionality dictate that the chair will have enough balance through its base or legs to support a person. Because the image is arranged based on the physical laws and functionality, it makes understanding the scene simpler. This project aims to develop a computer vision framework that learns and understands the physical world in a compositional manner, offering two significant benefits. First, a compositional interpretation of objects and scenes enables intelligent systems to engage in richer physical interactions and accomplish more complex tasks. Second, by decomposing complex entities into simpler constituents and modeling their relationships, this compositional approach addresses fundamental challenges faced by purely data-driven methods, including data inefficiency, the curse of dimensionality, and limited explainability. The outcomes of this project will impact a wide range of emerging applications, including robots that support manufacturing or assist with daily tasks, autonomous vehicles that enhance mobility and safety, and virtual or augmented reality interfaces that facilitate assistive workflows and remote collaboration. This project will tightly integrate research and education through curriculum development, research training for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, and community outreach. This project will develop new methodologies for learning and understanding the innate compositionality of objects and scenes in the physical world. It consists of three innovative thrusts. Thrust I aims to establish a unified framework for representing, parsing, and learning the compositionality of physical objects, through disentangled modeling of large shape variations, constituent parts, and detailed deformations of each part as multi-granularity neural fields. Thrust II aims to develop a new compositional model that parses 3D dynamic scenes from streaming video into an explainable layout graph on the fly, by constructing distributed representations of low-level geometry and motion and performing explicit reasoning about high-level scene compositionality. Thrust III will extend the first two thrusts by modeling the compositionality of generic articulated objects and investigating test-time adaptation for 3D dynamic scene parsing. Distinct from purely data-driven methods, this new compositional paradigm reduces reliance on extensive 3D annotations, naturally handles the high dimensionality of geometry and motion, and enables a deeper, more explainable understanding of the physical world. This project will advance and enrich fundamental research in visual compositionality, physical object and scene understanding, and explainable parsing. 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.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

This project includes a multi-faceted analysis of marine carbonyl sulfide emissions to be coordinated by a collaborative team from institutions in the US, Germany, and Israel. Carbonyl sulfide is a trace gas capable of providing insight into the global carbon cycle. Mass balance estimates from isotopes and atmospheric inversions both suggest the missing sources of carbonyl sulfide are tied to marine fluxes. This effort will significantly increase understanding of the marine source of carbonyl sulfide (OCS) by conducting a series of coordinated experiments that combine: (1) direct marine flux measurements of OCS; (2) dissolved measurements of OCS and its isotopologues and precursor gasses; and (3) data assimilation and modeling. The project includes an extended field campaign to continuously measure the direct fluxes of OCS. The team will collect data using an air-sea interaction tower on the US Atlantic seaboard (near Martha’s Vineyard, MA) and in Bolkins Eck (Bering Sea), as well as using shipboard measurements to quantify fluxes and resolve sources (via sulfur isotopes) of OCS from these coastal sites. The project includes training for early-career scientists and graduate students from a team of experienced scientists. This work is supported by the Atmospheric Chemistry and the Chemical Oceanography Programs. 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.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-07

With support from the Chemical Mechanism, Function, and Properties Program in the Division of Chemistry, a research team at the University of Illinois at Chicago are developing new reactions to rapidly assemble novel molecules through unconventional strategies using N-alkenylnitrones and N,O-dialkenylhydroxylamines as reactive intermediates. The rearrangement reactivity of these intermediates is being controlled to form more complex molecules with defined three-dimensional structure. Simple modular routes to generate N-alkenylnitrones and N,O-dialkenylhydroxylamines from readily available reagents are being used to facilitate these activities. This work is targeting improved synthetic efficiency to expand chemical space. Improvements in this area are necessary to support the discovery, accessibility, and study of biologically active molecules, as well as the development of new materials. These activities are also providing training for graduate and undergraduate students to become successful members of the chemical workforce and lowering barriers to students engaging in undergraduate research and considering chemistry career paths. Improving efficiency to enable rapid access to new molecular targets and expanding chemical space to include new molecular architectures remain two critical needs in organic synthesis to support demands for new compounds with novel properties for medicinal and material applications. The unique reactivity of N-alkenylnitrones and N,O-dialkenylhydroxylamines is being developed to address these goals by providing alternative solutions to synthetic challenges and improving the fundamental understanding of these versatile and unusual synthons to expand the synthetic toolbox of pericyclic and cascade reactions. More specifically, stereocontrol of the new C–C bond forming reactions that these synthetic intermediates undergo is being investigated through the development of: (i) catalytic asymmetric 4pi- and 6pi-electrocyclizations of N-alkenylnitrones for the synthesis of enantioenriched azetidine nitrones and oxazines, (ii) catalytic asymmetric sigmatropic rearrangements of N-alkenylisoxazolines for the synthesis of enantioenriched 1-pyrrolines, and (iii) stereoselective nitrone-templated sigmatropic rearrangements and C–H bond insertion reactions for the synthesis of 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds. These activities are training students in chemical experimentation and a series of events are engaging undergraduates in considering the merits of research experiences and opportunities available in chemistry career paths. 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.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2026 · 2025-07

Summary/Abstract Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) predisposes the liver to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma and is a leading cause for chronic liver disease and liver transplantation. Importantly, pre- but not post-menopausal women show a lower prevalence of MASLD than men. Clinical and experimental studies indicate that growth hormone (GH) protects the liver from steatosis and MASLD progression, but the underlying molecular and regulatory mechanisms are largely unknown. Prior work by our research groups using a mouse model of adult-onset, hepatocyte-specific GH receptor knockdown indicates the protection afforded females against MASLD can in part be explained by the sexually-dimorphic temporal pattern of pituitary GH secretion, and consequently, sex-dependent GH-activation of hepatic Stat5 activity (persistent in females vs. pulsatile in males); this, in turn, regulates the sex-dependent liver transcriptome, including expression of key sex-dependent liver transcription factors (TFs). The work proposed builds on these prior research findings and supports two central hypotheses: 1) integrative crosstalk between sex-biased TFs controls the female-dependent actions of GH and Stat5 on the hepatocyte transcriptome to confer protection from steatosis; and 2) persistent Stat5 signaling, as occurs in female liver, maintains hepatocyte-specific programs that go beyond controlling steatosis, and interact with liver non-parenchymal cells to reduce fibrosis and slow MASLD disease progression. To address these hypotheses, Aim 1 will use adult-onset, hepatocyte- specific knockdown technology to elucidate contributions of two female-biased hepatocyte TFs to GH/Stat5- signaling in sustaining female-biased gene expression and protection from steatosis. Aim 1 will also determine the potential for one of these TFs, Cux2, to feminize the male liver transcriptome and prevent steatosis. In Aim 2, mice will be fed a translationally relevant diet that induces MASLD to elucidate the hepatoprotective actions of persistent hepatocyte Stat5 activity on liver-specific disease progression. Single nucleus RNA-seq will be used to elucidate how sex-dependent, hepatocyte-specific signaling downstream of Stat5 alters expression of genes critical for controlling hepatocyte regeneration, senescence, stress and death, and their impact on cell- cell communication with liver non-parenchymal cells key to MASLD pathology. Together, this work is expected to shift current research paradigms on the hormonal control of sex-differences in liver disease, which are largely focused on gonadal steroids, to elucidate how persistent, plasma GH pattern-determined hepatic Stat5 activity and its downstream sex-dependent liver TFs protect females across the spectrum of MASLD to slow disease progression. Fundamental new knowledge will be gained in the fields of GH signaling and action, sex differences in liver biology, and MASLD development, and is expected to have real potential to unveil novel therapeutic strategies and druggable targets to treat this devastating disease and leading cause of liver failure.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2025-07

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKP) can cause life-threatening infections in otherwise healthy people that are associated with high mortality rates of up to 40%. In contrast to hvKP, infections caused by classical K. pneumoniae (cKP) are often restricted to immunocompromised individuals. Increased production of capsular polysaccharide (CPS) is a primary driver of hypervirulence in KP, which enables the bacteria to evade the host immune response, including the complement system. Although hvKP have historically remained susceptible to most antibiotics, multidrug resistance and hypervirulence have recently converged in K. pneumoniae (MDR- hvKP). Increased CPS production by MDR-hvKP may also directly compromise antibiotics by prohibiting them from binding to the bacterial outer membrane or by reducing target site penetration. The traditional approach to select antibiotics for cKP infections is often applied to the treatment of hvKP, focusing primarily on in vitro susceptibilities. However, this approach fails to consider other unique characteristics of the bacteria, such as CPS levels, and has never been validated for MDR-hvKP. Our central hypothesis is that excess CPS expression in MDR-hvKP reduces the activity of certain antibiotics, which can be overcome with targeted therapy that maximizes bacterial killing and capsule inhibition. In preliminary studies, we generated isogenic strains that displayed different levels of CPS from their parent MDR-hvKP clinical isolate. Then we evaluated the response of these strains to a standard-of-care antibiotic (ceftazidime/avibactam) in the hollow fiber infection model and showed that increased CPS led to diminished antibiotic activity, despite no changes in MIC. We also found that pre-treatment with subinhibitory concentrations of the polymyxins significantly decreased CPS, which then sensitized KP to killing by the complement system and ceftazidime/avibactam. Thus, treatment approaches for MDR-hvKP that combine antibiotics with a CPS-inhibitor adjuvant are highly promising. Leveraging an innovative approach, this proposal will assess the interaction between antibiotics and CPS to facilitate rational development of combinations for MDR-hvKP. In Aim 1, we will elucidate the interplay between capsule and antibiotics. Antibiotics that retain maximal activity in the presence of high CPS production and adjuvants that decrease CPS will be identified. In Aim 2, we will rationally develop and validate a combination treatment approach for MDR-hvKP that maximizes synergy between a CPS-inhibitor adjuvant and antibiotic. CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) will be used to verify that inhibition of the CPS synthesis pathway is a viable target and that its inhibition can sensitize bacteria to killing by antibiotics and complement. Leading combinations will be evaluated in a pre-clinical mouse model. This project will generate significant and novel insights into the interplay between CPS and antibiotic exposure in MDR-hvKP to facilitate rational development of antibiotic therapies.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2026 · 2025-06

The overall goal of this K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award is to refine a digital mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) to improve pain and sleep among adolescents and young adults (AYA) with sickle cell disease (SCD) and to assess this MBI’s feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy. Among AYA with SCD, chronic pain and sleep deficiency (i.e., insufficient amount of sleep and/or poor sleep quality) are very common and have significant negative effects on health-related quality of life, including increased risk of fatigue, anxiety, and depressed mood persisting into adulthood. Although MBIs are shown to have a range of benefits for chronic pain and sleep quality in adults, less is known about their impact on pain and sleep for AYA with SCD. The proposed research is designed to address these gaps by adapting an MBI for AYA with SCD through user-centered design. The proposed training goals are for the principal investigator to (1) gain knowledge and skills to conduct SCD research; (2) acquire a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted factors of AYA with SCD and develop expertise in adapting a digital MBI for AYA with SCD; (3) gain specialized knowledge in mixed methods research and randomized controlled trials; and (4) cultivate leadership skills and secure a tenure-track position. The specific aims for the K99 phase of this research are (1) to identify the preferences of AYA with SCD and the related facilitators and barriers to MBI use by conducting patient partnership board meetings and interviews, then use user-centered design to adapt and refine a digital MBI designed to decrease pain and sleep deficiency among AYA with SCD; and (2) to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the resulting digital MBI. The specific aims for the R00 phase of research are (1) to compare the MBI intervention and usual care control groups for effects on the primary outcome (pain intensity) and secondary outcomes (pain interference, sleep quality, sleep hygiene practices, fatigue, anxiety, depressed mood), then explore the dose-dependent relationship between intervention intensity and changes in the primary and secondary outcomes, as well as which specific modules of the MBI have the greatest impact on the primary and secondary outcomes; and (2) explore the effect of motivation as a mediator between the MBI and pain intensity in AYA with SCD. This K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award will provide the applicant with the opportunity to simultaneously expedite the start of her independent career in nursing research on pain and sleep in AYA with SCD through expanding access to age-appropriate digital interventions for AYA with SCD. Study findings will support modification and further development of the digital MBI for pain and sleep through future R01 applications to conduct a large randomized controlled intervention trial among AYA with SCD.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Project Summary/Abstract High grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is the most prevalent and lethal histotype of ovarian cancer. The fallopian tube is the primary origin of most HGSOCs, supported by evidence from molecular analysis and clinically demonstrated by the protective effect of salpingectomy. Ovulation is a major risk factor for ovarian cancer. Currently, the only means for prevention are through the reduction of lifetime ovulatory events, such as through the use hormonal birth control or surgical removal of the fallopian tubes and ovaries. The complexity in understanding the dynamic interplay between ovarian secretions and fallopian tube epithelium (FTE) is compounded by the deep-seated abdominal location and the elusive dispersion of fluids secreted by the ovary into the peritoneal space. Therefore, the molecular mechanisms that drive the initiation of ovarian cancer in the fallopian tube in response to ovulation are poorly understood. To address these challenges, our collaborative team has developed a physiologically accurate menstrual cycle model using the PREDICT Multi-Organ System (MOS), a microfluidic (organ-on-chip) device that enables us to recapitulate the process of ovulation and capture the entirety of ovarian secretions. Additionally, our lab engineered preneoplastic murine oviductal epithelial (MOE) cell models (equivalent to the human fallopian tube) that express the most commonly and earliest identified aberrations in HGSOC: Pax2 loss and p53 mutation (R2723H). Utilizing ovulation secretions captured on the platform, we observed an upregulation of DNA damage response transcripts in the fallopian tube models, followed by an increase in proliferation caused by secretions from the luteal phase in our Pax2 deficient cells. These findings are significant, as they demonstrate that ovarian secretions induce DNA damage and proliferation in the FTE. Our proposed aims encompass understanding the pathways associated with DNA damage, oxidative stress, and cell migration caused by ovulation as well as uncovering the molecular pathways that drive FTE proliferation in the luteal phase. Additionally, we will investigate the in vitro efficacy of a Cox2 inhibitor to act as a potential chemopreventative agent and to mitigate the damaging effects of ovulation. With increasing interest in non-hormonal birth control methods, our proposal represents a step towards investigating a non-hormonal strategy for prevention. Through the experiments outlined in this proposal, we aim to identify the early mechanisms involved in HGSOC initiation by studying phase-dependent changes caused by secretions from the ovary. The research project and strategies will facilitate my training as a PharmD/PhD student given their focus on uncovering mechanisms and treatments for HGSOC.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Model theory is a part of mathematical logic which has extensive applications in other areas of mathematics and computer science. This project centers around three main projects involving model theory. The first involves solutions of differential and difference equations. These types of equations specify how an object or variable moves with respect to another in a continuous or discrete manner, respectively. Over the last decade, model theory has played a pivotal role in the resolution of several long-standing open problems for algebraic differential equations. This project aims to continue that progress as well as adapt the new methods to solutions of difference equations. The second project aims to develop connections between model theory and machine learning on both a theoretical and practical level. The third main area of this project involves applying the lessons learned from machine learning and difference equations in more general model theoretic settings. These adaptations are expected to lead to fundamental new advances in model theory. This project involves graduate student training. Model theory has a long history of applications to transcendence results for differential equations. In the last decade, this circle of results has rapidly expanded as model theoretic methods have become more refined. This project seeks to adapt these results to the setting of difference fields, which is expected to have applications in algebraic dynamics via characterizing the invariant subvarieties of algebraic maps of varieties. In model theory, one usually does not study arbitrary first order theories due to well-known wildness phenomena such as undecidability. Because of this, different settings have developed specific techniques in the presence of various tameness principles. Surprisingly, these principles proved to be the key to efficient learnability in several different models of machine learning. This project seeks to continue to develop this growing area of connection while applying cutting edge results from graph theory and combinatorics. The techniques developed in these projects are expected to have bearing on the development of model theory in the area of simple and stable theories. 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.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

The groundswell of available data and computation power to learn from data has produced advanced automation across many domains, but cybersecurity has lagged these trends. Cybersecurity data sharing comes primarily in the form of indicators of compromise (IoCs) that describe patterns or artifacts that have already been classified as associated with malicious activity. Identifying malicious activity and distilling one or more IoCs from it, however, is often a manual process that is slowed and/or decayed by the siloed viewpoints of different organizations. This project's broader significance and importance are in pioneering a new approach to organizational data sharing that prioritizes support for targeted queries on the operational states of other organizations to overcome these siloed viewpoints. This project's novelties are in identifying opportunities for organizations to diagnose events by posing and responding to such queries and in developing technologies to do so, while simultaneously protecting operational privacy for the organizations. The technical core of this project is a new approach to intrusion detection enabled by cross-organization queries, supported by specialized cryptographic protocols to pose queries and receive responses in a way that minimizes collateral leakage. The project also contributes novel mechanisms to motivate participation in these data exchanges, and to prioritize the partners to which queries should be posed to receive the highest-quality answers. This project couples these technical advances with engagement with the operational cybersecurity community via the Workshop on Security Operations Center (SOC) Operations and Construction (WOSOC) and with foci on integrating this research into educational efforts at the investigators' institutions and in engaging students in research. In doing so, the project strives to align its technical vision with the needs of the operational community and to produce students who can effect this vision within it. 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.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Abstract Physical activity (PA) is a significant area of research in aging, dementia, and cognitive impairment (CI), but regular PA may be challenging to begin and sustain for older adults with cognitive impairment (OACI). One way to engage OACI in PA is to set goals to enhance motivation. While this has succeeded in rehabilitative settings and residential care facilities, there remains a gap in knowledge on PA goalsetting among community- dwelling OACI to maintain function and independence. A recent area of interest in PA and goalsetting is purpose in life (PiL), which is defined as the subjective experience of living with meaning and direction. Older adults with greater PiL tend to be more physically active, likely because they connect their PiL and long-term goals with the importance of PA. However, utilizing PiL as motivation for regular PA likely requires higher-order cognitive abilities that older adults with more advanced CI may not have. Furthermore, while the most currently validated PiL measurement developed by Ryff and colleagues has been successfully administered among OACI, there is concern that this PiL measurement may not entirely suit the circumstances of OACI. Since preliminary analyses further found that this measurement did not fit data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) well among OACI, there is a need to refine the measurement of PiL for OACI to ensure applicability. The goal of this study is to understand who can connect PiL to PA among OACI and how. Aim 1 refines the measurement of PiL among OACI using the HRS. Items from Ryff's HRS PiL framework will be assessed using a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for applicability to OACI based on current literature, and a modified model will be proposed using a subset of HRS PiL items. Aim 2 employs the HRS to evaluate the association between PiL and PA among older adults with varying degrees of CI. This aim is based on the hypothesis that the degree of CI moderates the association between PiL and PA, such that the association between PiL and PA is similar and strong among older adults without CI and older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) but weaker among older adults with dementia. Lastly, Aim 3 qualitatively investigates how older adults with MCI and mild dementia evaluate PiL and incorporate PiL into PA goalsetting. The authors propose that connecting one's PiL to one's PA goals leads to enhanced motivation for and engagement in regular PA. This aim uses the ongoing Promoting In-Home Activities at a Memory & Aging Clinic (P30AG022849-19 sub-fund, PI: Muramatsu), a PA intervention with PA goalsetting for inactive older adults with MCI or mild dementia. Aim 3 will identify participants' PiL, support the development of personalized and meaningful PA goals, and observe how participants engage in the PA intervention when involving their PiL. Findings from this study will be triangulated and used to develop themes for clinical tools to motivate OACI to engage in regular PA.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2025 · 2025-06

Project Summary: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) can be characterized by a pattern of compulsive alcohol drinking and development of several withdrawal symptoms that promote relapse and maintenance of addiction. Long-term alcohol use causes molecular, structural, and functional changes in key brain regions such as medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), hippocampus, amygdala, and ventral tegmental area (VTA) which may drive behavioral phenotypes, such as anxiety, depression, panic, pain, deficits in cognition and reduced reward sensitivity. Several studies have shown that protein families such as histone deacetylases (HDACs), histone acetyltransferases (HATs), histone methyltransferases (HMTs), DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs), and lysine demethylases are important players in epigenetic and transcriptional changes during withdrawal after chronic ethanol exposure. However, the cell- type specificity of the interplay between epigenetic mechanisms (open chromatin accessibility) and the transcriptomic changes that occur across brain regions [prelimbic mPFC, central nucleus of amygdala (CeA), dorsal hippocampus, and VTA] which eventually leads to the development and maintenance of AUD is not well known. The overall aim of this Alcohol Research Center is to evaluate the cellular heterogeneity of transcriptomic and epigenomic changes leading to structural and electrophysiological changes in specific brain regions that underlie withdrawal behavioral phenotypes in AUD. This renewal P50 application entitled “Center for Alcohol Research in Epigenetics (CARE)” consists of four highly inter-related preclinical and translational research projects [research project #1, VTA, (Brodie /Grayson), research project #2, Amygdala, (Pandey/Sparta), research project #3, Hippocampus, (McMurray/ Krishnan) and research project #4, mPFC, (Glover/Auta)] and two Cores [Administrative (Pandey/ Brodie), and Epigenetics Core (Grayson/Maienschein- Cline/Gao/Boergens/Krishnan)] utilizing animal models of AUD and human postmortem brain regions of AUD subjects. In addition, the CARE will continue to serve as an important resource and provide a scientifically enriched environment for training opportunities for the next generation of alcohol researchers and will disseminate scientific knowledge of AUD to the general public through a community outreach program. The primary thematic focus of CARE as a whole will be to causally link emerging cell type-specific mechanisms identified by 10x genomics (snRNA-seq and snATAC-seq) in the proposed brain circuitry to several behavioral phenotypes of AUD during withdrawal. Mechanistic approaches (CRISPR-dCas9 or shRNA) will be used to manipulate the cell type-specific epigenome through alterations of either histone acetylation/methylation mechanisms or DNA methylation mechanisms, in key brain circuitry that regulates behavioral phenotypes associated with AUD (anxiety, depression, panic, pain, cognition deficits and reduced reward sensitivity) in order to better understand the pathophysiology of AUD and develop better pharmacotherapy.

NIH Research Projects · FY 2026 · 2025-06

ABSTRACT The development of pulmonary hypertension is associated with oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, and pulmonary vascular remodeling. Pulmonary vascular remodeling is involved in proliferation and phenotypic transformation of pulmonary endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells. And endothelial dysfunction influences endothelial cell proliferation, and differentiation, leading to endothelial apoptosis-resistant hyperproliferation underlying the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension. The voltage-gated proton channel Hv1 has been shown to promote the production of NADPH oxidase (NOX)-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) and plays an essential role in the regulation of cell proliferation and apoptosis. Here we discovered that Hv1 was implicated in pulmonary hypertension. The expression of Hv1 was significantly upregulated in the lungs of multiple rodent models of pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary hypertension patients. Moreover, deficiency of Hv1 reduced pulmonary hypertension burden in mouse model of hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension. To explore the role of Hv1 in the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension, we will apply transgenic mice and complementary in vivo approaches to delineate the contributions of Hv1 to the development of pulmonary hypertension. We plan to examine the molecular mechanisms of Hv1-mediated pulmonary hypertension and determine how Hv1 regulates the progression of pulmonary hypertension. Additionally, the Hv1 blockers will be applied to assess the translational potential of targeting Hv1 for treatment of pulmonary hypertension.

NSF Awards · FY 2025 · 2025-06

This award supports the participation of US-based graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to a conference titled “Singularities in Algebra and Geometry” being held June 15-21, 2025, in Guanajuato, Mexico. The conference will take place on the premises of Centro de Investigación en Matemáticas in Guanajuato, which has a long tradition of successful international events. Algebraic Geometry and Commutative Algebra are among the oldest yet most vibrant branches of mathematics, and have important applications throughout the sciences in light of the rich structure and computational elegance of polynomial equations. The conference “Singularities in Algebra and Geometry” will bring together leading experts in these and related areas, fostering an exchange of ideas and methodologies and further enriching this dynamic field. This conference will also include substantial mentoring and training for young researchers, helping to stimulate collaboration and cultivate peer-support networks. This will enhance retention, improve future job opportunities, and foster their future success in the STEM disciplines. The specific focus of the conference is on recent advances in Commutative Algebra, Algebraic Geometry, and related areas including Arithmetic Geometry and Noncommutative Algebra, with a common theme being the study of singularities. Over the past decade, these fields have experienced spectacular advances due to the cross-fertilization of techniques and perspectives. These developments have also made significant impacts in other areas, including cluster algebras and number theory, while at the same time borrowing heavily from insights in those fields. More information can be found on the conference website: https://sites.google.com/view/singularitiesalggeom2025. 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.