Award Abstract # 2112675
CREST Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Machines

NSF Org: EES
Div. of Equity for Excellence in STEM
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED
Initial Amendment Date: August 31, 2021
Latest Amendment Date: June 30, 2025
Award Number: 2112675
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Luis Cubano
lcubano@nsf.gov
 (703)292-7941
EES
 Div. of Equity for Excellence in STEM
EDU
 Directorate for STEM Education
Start Date: September 1, 2021
End Date: August 31, 2028 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $5,000,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $5,595,407.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2021 = $950,000.00
FY 2022 = $1,150,000.00

FY 2023 = $1,000,000.00

FY 2024 = $1,000,000.00

FY 2025 = $1,495,407.00
History of Investigator:
  • Victor Munoz (Principal Investigator)
    vmunoz3@ucmerced.edu
  • Sayantani Ghosh (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Ajay Gopinathan (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of California - Merced
5200 N LAKE RD
MERCED
CA  US  95343-5001
(209)201-2039
Sponsor Congressional District: 13
Primary Place of Performance: University of California - Merced
5200 North Lake Road
Merced
CA  US  95343-5001
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
13
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): FFM7VPAG8P92
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Centers for Rsch Excell in S&T
Primary Program Source: 04002223DB NSF Education & Human Resource
04002324DB NSF STEM Education

04002526DB NSF STEM Education

04002425DB NSF STEM Education

04002122DB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s): 9131, 9179
Program Element Code(s): 913100
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.076

ABSTRACT

The Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) program supports the enhancement of research capabilities of institutions through the establishment of centers that effectively integrate education and research. CREST promotes the development of new knowledge, enhancements of the research productivity of individual faculty, and an expanded presence of students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. With National Science Foundation support, the University of California ? Merced builds on the successes of the Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Machines (CCBM) Phase I, leading to institutional transformation and new scientific horizons. In Phase II, the Center will use an interdisciplinary approach cutting across scientific and engineering methodologies to:

?pursue a fundamental understanding of the adaptive and responsive functioning of multi-scale biomolecular and cellular assemblies that enable control of function in vivo;
?use these fundamental principles for designing and developing novel bio-inspired functioning machines ranging from designer nanodevices, cells and tissue to diagnostic and therapeutic devices; and
?refine, augment, and institutionalize CCBM?s signature integrated, interdisciplinary graduate training program that combines scientific and professional skills with supervision of research and training experiences for undergraduate and high school students aimed at enhancing and developing career opportunities in STEM fields. By integrating research and education, the Center aims to develop a robust STEM workforce at all levels and produce graduates in both physical and biological sciences and can pursue cross-disciplinary STEM careers in academia, laboratories or industry.

Three thrusts are presented and defined according to their scale (nano, meso, and multicellular). Thrust 1: Protein Metamorphosis and Responsive Nanodevices. Phase II research focuses on the emerging theme of protein metamorphosis as mechanism to enable natural and synthetic controllable biological nanodevices, organized in two broad areas: the functional roles of gradually morphing proteins; and engineering of control systems of the assembly-disassembly of biological macromolecular assemblies. Thrust 2: Adaptive and Responsive Mesoscale Assemblies. In Phase II, the focus is to understand the mechanisms that enable assemblies to function collectively in adaptive and responsive ways as well as exploiting them for applications. Thrust 3: Adaptive Cellular Communication. Phase II will examine the impact of cell-cell and cell-matrix mechanical interactions on collective cell motility, patterning and the emergence of function, combining experimental and modeling approaches.

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.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 73)
Adeoye, Ayomide_J and de_Alba, Eva "A Simple Method to Determine Diffusion Coefficients in Soft Hydrogels for Drug Delivery and Biomedical Applications" ACS Omega , v.10 , 2025 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.4c06984 Citation Details
al-Mosleh, Salem and Gopinathan, Ajay and Santangelo, Christian D. and Huang, Kerwyn Casey and Rojas, Enrique R. "Feedback linking cell envelope stiffness, curvature, and synthesis enables robust rod-shaped bacterial growth" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , v.119 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2200728119 Citation Details
Bains, Arjan and Fischer, Kathryn and Guan, Wenyan and LiWang, Patricia J "The Antiviral Activity of the Lectin Griffithsin against SARS-CoV-2 Is Enhanced by the Presence of Structural Proteins" Viruses , v.15 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.3390/v15122452 Citation Details
Bains, Arjan and Guan, Wenyan and LiWang, Patricia J "The Effect of Select SARS-CoV-2 N-Linked Glycan and Variant of Concern Spike Protein Mutations on C-Type Lectin-Receptor-Mediated Infection" Viruses , v.15 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.3390/v15091901 Citation Details
Bose, Subhaya and Dasbiswas, Kinjal and Gopinath, Arvind "Matrix Stiffness Modulates Mechanical Interactions and Promotes Contact between Motile Cells" Biomedicines , v.9 , 2021 https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9040428 Citation Details
Bose, Subhaya and Noerr, Patrick S. and Gopinathan, Ajay and Gopinath, Arvind and Dasbiswas, Kinjal "Collective States of Active Particles With Elastic Dipolar Interactions" Frontiers in Physics , v.10 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2022.876126 Citation Details
Bose, Subhaya and Wang, Haiqin and Xu, Xinpeng and Gopinath, Arvind and Dasbiswas, Kinjal "Elastic interactions compete with persistent cell motility to drive durotaxis" Biophysical Journal , v.123 , 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2024.09.021 Citation Details
Brisbin, Ryan and Bartolo, Mark and Leville, Michael and Rajan, Arya K. and Jahan, Basharat and McCloskey, Kara E. and Gopinathan, Ajay and Ghosh, Sayantani and Baxter, Ryan "Tuning three-dimensional nano-assembly in the mesoscale via bis(imino)pyridine molecular functionalization" Scientific Reports , v.12 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-04851-6 Citation Details
Brisbin, Ryan P and Rajan, Arya Karappilly and Khan, Md Imran and Rajaram, Pravien S and Russell, Karen M and Ghosh, Sayantani and Baxter, Ryan D "Concentration-dependent emission from low molecular weight benzoyl pyrazinium salts" Materials Advances , v.4 , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1039/D3MA00302G Citation Details
Buck, Matthias and Muñoz, Victor "BiophysicaA New International Open Access Journal to Integrate Across the Modern Biophysical Sciences and Engineering" Biophysica , v.1 , 2021 https://doi.org/10.3390/biophysica1010006 Citation Details
Buck, Matthias and Muñoz, Victor "First Year of Biophysica" Biophysica , v.2 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.3390/biophysica2020009 Citation Details
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 73)

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