Arizona State University: ASU Receives $12.5M NSF Award To Establish Transdisciplinary Institute

Press release from Arizona State University:

Richard Harth

September 17, 2021

The National Science Foundation has announced the award of $12.5 million to Arizona State University for the development of a new Biological Integration Institute.

The award will initiate a universitywide program, under the direction of Michael Lynch, principal investigator and director of the Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution.

Evolutionary cell biology aims to unite the fields of cell biology and evolutionary theory into a rigorous new discipline, drawing on three great frameworks in theoretical and quantitative biology: biochemistry, biophysics and population genetics.

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The new center will focus on the exciting, emergent field of evolutionary cell biology, a discipline Lynch has helped pioneer. It will examine the ways in which cellular evolution across life forms is guided by internal cellular constraints, based on the laws of biophysics, bioenergetics and population genetics. The intensely interdisciplinary undertaking will draw on tools from mathematics, physics, chemistry, biophysics, structural biology, cellular biology and evolution.

Lynch is joined by co-PIs Jeremy Wideman, Wayne Frasch, Kerry Geiler-Samerotte and Ke Hu, all of whom are researchers in the Biodesign Center for Mechanisms of Evolution.

The institutes represent an ambitious program designed by the NSF to encourage collaborative teams to investigate questions spanning multiple disciplines within and beyond biology.

According to the NSF: “Each institute must identify a research theme, centered around a compelling and broad biological question poised for breakthroughs by collaboration across biological subdisciplines.”

Over a century and a half has passed since Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species." Yet, the underlying mechanisms responsible for the astonishing variety of life on Earth are only partially understood. This is particularly true of evolutionary processes at the cellular level.

Cells are fundamental units of life. Evolutionary cell biology investigates cellular life to help illuminate the processes of evolution, while using the tools and perspectives of evolutionary biology to explore how cells work and why they assume the diverse forms they do.

Despite significant advances in fields ranging from molecular and genome evolution to evolutionary developmental biology and ecology, investigations of cellular evolution are sorely lacking. “We just jumped over the cell and yet that's where all biology starts — at the cellular level,” Lynch said.

Evolutionary cell biology aims to unite the fields of cell biology and evolutionary theory into a rigorous new discipline, drawing on three great frameworks in theoretical and quantitative biology: biochemistry, biophysics and population genetics.

As Lynch notes, crucial concepts in biochemistry and biophysics have been profoundly underexplored in the world of evolutionary biology, while cell biologists have, for the most part, avoided consideration of the evolutionary pathways by which various cell features may have emerged.

“We are thrilled that ASU will play host to a profoundly creative and interdisciplinary effort to understand the evolutionary underpinnings of cell structure, function and diversity,” said Joshua LaBaer, executive director of the Biodesign Institute. “The research is poised to not only transform our appreciation of cells and evolutionary theory but provide crucial information to better address a range of societal issues, from antibiotic-, herbicide- and pesticide-resistance to the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases.”

The blueprint for the new center includes three primary research objectives. The first major project will involve the construction of a vast atlas of the biology of cells, through a range of new investigative techniques. One problem facing the field is the fact that the majority of cell biology research to date has focused on a tiny subset of cellular diversity, specifically yeast cells and a few bacteria like E. coli.

“The idea here is to explore cells over the whole tree of life,” Lynch said. “We want to understand what's inside cells, how proteins are assigned to different subcellular locations, how much cells invest in different organelles, and so on.”

After powering through a year or more of remote and hybrid learning due to COVID-19, a significant share of traditional school districts are returning to familiar in-person models this school year. Even so, the advantages of online learning remain clear, particularly in the event of student quarantines.

In Cleveland, one forward-thinking network of schools is offering students and their families a first-of-its-kind solution to keep students up to date with the school content and curriculum they have the potential to miss because of a COVID-19 quarantine.

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A new offering called Learning Under Quarantine from ASU Prep Digital, envisioned for Breakthrough Public Schools in collaboration with The 305 Education Group, is now in place. To prevent COVID-19 learning losses, ASU Prep Digital provides online instructors to teach Cleveland-area students who miss in-person learning due to a 10-day quarantine.

This innovative approach increases teaching and learning time simultaneously, while providing a practical solution for schools that simply do not have the human or financial resources to operate dual in-person and online models.

During the 2020–21 school year, Breakthrough Public Schools — one of the highest-performing public, nonprofit charter school networks in Ohio — only operated remotely. However, for the 2021–22 academic year, network leaders knew changes were necessary.

“Our families overwhelmingly wanted their kids back in school buildings this year, and as educators, we believe that in-person education is critically important at this time to address unfinished learning and the social and emotional development of our students,” said Tyler Thornton, COO of Breakthrough Public Schools, which serves kindergarteners through eighth graders. “At the same time, we are conscious that COVID quarantining is a growing reality, and we have a responsibility to keep students engaged and progressing in their education, even when they’re unable to attend school in person.”

After vetting potential partners to answer this need, Breakthrough Public Schools selected ASU Prep Digital. The online PreK–12 school, developed by Arizona State University, combines easy-to-use technology with a strong curriculum, qualified educators, grade-specific and concurrent college courses, and customizable solutions. Each of these components blend to create one-of-a-kind formulas (or learning plans/models) that are customized to meet the needs of schools and students, helping them to succeed and advance academically. 

“We implemented the Learning Under Quarantine Model for Breakthrough Public Schools to assist their reopening framework, so that quarantined students could continue learning, while also alleviating the burden on teachers and parents,” said Julie Young, managing director of ASU Preparatory Academy and ASU Prep Digital.

“Many schools are searching for an approach that lets them effectively teach in this still unpredictable COVID environment,” Young said. “At ASU Prep Digital, we have the advantage of a proven online program that gives schools and students the option to excel in a nontraditional way. Through an extensive collaboration process, we created this new Learning Under Quarantine model to meet the needs of Breakthrough’s student population. We look forward to customizing this offering to fit the needs of more schools that could use this same type of quality teaching assistance.”

This press release was produced by Arizona State University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.