UPenn, UPR-Mayagüez get $18M NSF grant for AIRFoundry project
NSF AIRFoundry will leverage artificial intelligence to uncover and apply fundamental design principles of ribonucleic acid (RNA) across various applications, from health care to agriculture.
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced an $18 million funding allocation to the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Puerto Rico for the development of the NSF AIRFoundry project, the agency and university officials announced.
Engaging other universities, industry and hospitals, NSF AIRFoundry will leverage artificial intelligence to uncover and apply fundamental design principles of ribonucleic acid (RNA) across various applications, from health care to agriculture.
The project will focus on RNA, an essential molecule for genetic expression and protein synthesis, university officials said.
Educational and outreach efforts include “Women in Science Day,” customized coursework, engagement with high school students and a strategy to diversify the STEM workforce, according to the project description.
The collaborative effort, which involves Penn’s schools of engineering and medicine, Drexel University, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, InfiniFluidics — a Philadelphia-based startup — and the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez campus (RUM), will have facilities in West Philadelphia and at RUM.
“We’re going to incorporate artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing techniques to be able to create these technologies,” said Claribel Acevedo-Vélez, associate professor of the Department of Chemical Engineering (INQU) and principal investigator of the proposal at RUM.
“Within the facilities that we will develop, we are going to integrate different academic laboratories and industries in areas of technology; for example, in agriculture or pharmaceuticals,” she said.
“The idea is to take this knowledge that we generate within the AIRFoundry to other sectors, beyond the health sector, so that other areas benefit from these technologies. RNA is an extremely important molecule in protein synthesis and played a critical role in the development of vaccines against COVID-19. This is a field that is still emerging,” Acevedo-Vélez noted.
In addition to the scientific aspects, the proposal includes collaborations with industry and the dissemination of knowledge, she added. This area, called “partnership translation,” is coordinated by chemistry professor Rodolfo J. Romañach. The research team also includes Maribella Domenech, who will lead one of the interdisciplinary research groups, and Camilo Mora, both from INQU.
The project will use AI to design, optimize and synthesize RNA and delivery vehicles by augmenting human expertise, enabling rapid iterative experimentation, and providing predictive models and automated workflows to accelerate discovery and innovation.
“With NSF AIRFoundry, we are creating a hub for innovation in RNA technology that will empower scientists to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, from health care to environmental sustainability,” said Daeyeon Lee, the Russell Pearce and Elizabeth Crimian Heuer Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in Penn Engineering and NSF AIRFoundry’s director.
The $18 million allocation is part of a global $75 million funding round from the NSF to support the creation of five biofoundries to spur innovation, provide tools and technologies to researchers, and help advance biology, biotechnology, and the broader science, technology, engineering and mathematics enterprise.
