In
July 1995, the
Biotechnology Research
Subcommittee (BRS), an Inter Agency Coordinating Committee under the
office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), released the report
"Biotechnology for the 21st Century: New Horizons" that identifies
research priorities and opportunities in biotechnology. This report
described the promise of this new technology and included an assessment
of federal roles relating to its advancement. One of the research
priorities included the need for a better understanding of metabolic
pathways and metabolic engineering in living systems. To stimulate
increased awareness and attention to this field, the BRS established
the MEWG. The MEWG is comprised of representatives from eight federal
agencies who work together to facilitate assistance to those
investigating application of metabolic engineering principles in a wide
range of areas.
Metabolic
Engineering is a new approach to understanding and using metabolic
processes. As the name implies, ME is the targeted and purposeful
alteration of metabolic pathways found in an organism in order to
better understand and use cellular pathways for chemical
transformation, energy transduction, and supramolecular assembly.
Knowledge acquired from this research will benefit society in a number
of ways, including the ability to modify biological pathways to produce
biological substitutes for less desirable chemical processes; allowing
greater agricultural production, permitting more efficient and safer
energy production, and; providing better understanding of the metabolic
basis for some medical conditions that could assist in the development
of new cures.
To
accomplish its mandate, the MEWG has been active through monthly
meetings, annual workshops and occasional seminars. From these
interagency sessions, two major initiatives were identified:
announcements of interagency, rather than agency-specific opportunities
for funding research grants, and; the beginnings of a government-wide Metabolic
Engineering Project
Inventory. The
preceding link provides access to that Inventory.
Amongst
these various activities, MEWG has held five grant competitions (NSF
98-49, NSF 99-85, NSF 01-19, NSF 02-37, and NSF 03-516). The first
competition resulted in 19 proposals with five awards totalling $3.6M,
the second competition resulted in 29 proposals with six awards
totalling $3.1M, the third competition resulted in 13 awards made from
33 proposals with total funding of $7.5 million, the fourth competition
resulted in 11 awards made from 47 proposals with total funding of $7.6
million, and the fifth competition resulted in 10 awards made from 41
proposals with total funding of $5.7 million. In addition the MEWG has
held several workshops.
Although
the MEWG welcomes everyone to peruse this site, MEWG workgroup members,
Federal research Program Managers, and researchers are the intended
audience and will be expected to use this site in different ways.
Program managers will look for projects related to those they are
funding or intend to fund and for potential applicants to whom they
might address invitations to apply to announcements. They also will
look for meetings and other events open to them. The Metabolic
Engineering Workgroup Members will look for trends in research funding
in order to plan future joint announcements of opportunities and to
plan other activities, such as workshops, based on current research.
Information on principal investigators may help in selecting speakers
for meetings. Researchers will want to see which agencies are funding
specific types of projects, in order to focus their research plans.
They may also be interested in activities sponsored by the Working
Group.
Department
of Agriculture (USDA)
Contacts: Liang-Shiou
Lin/Gail
McLean/Chavonda
Jacobs-Young
Department
of Defense (DOD)
Contact:
Jennifer
Gresham
Department
of Energy (DOE)
Contacts: Valerie
Sarisky-Reed/David
Thomassen
Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
Contacts: Michael
Broder/Mark
Segal/Barbara
Karn/April
Richards
National
Aeronautics Space
Administration (NASA)
Contacts: Steven
Davison/Jitendra
Joshi
National
Institute of General Medical
Sciences (NIH)
Contact: Warren
Jones
National
Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST)
Contacts: Travis
Gallagher/Robert Goldberg
National
Science Foundation (NSF)
Contacts: Fred
G. Heineken/Parag
Chitnis/Lenore
Clesceri
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