Rosen Bioengineering Center Pilot Research Grants provide up to $80,000 to support collaborative early-stage projects that require sharing of ideas, people and resources between labs. The goal of the program is to help teams develop strong preliminary data that will enhance their competitiveness for large, collaborative awards from external agencies like NIH, NSF, DoD and others.
The teams involved in this program have generated published manuscripts (with others in prep or submitted), given numerous conference presentations, submitted multiple proposals for external funding, and received follow-on awards from Federal agencies.
2025
Bridging gaps in reproductive biology: Integrating photoacoustic tomography and stem-cell embryo models to elucidate implantation failure
Awardees: Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz and Lihong Wang
Delivery of therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier byextracellular vesicles generated in vivo by mRNA-LNP vaccination
Awardees: Stephen Mayo and Viviana Gradinaru
Mechano-Genomic Interplay: Exploring the Impact of Hydrogel Confinement and Nutrient Limitation on Bacterial Fitness for Improved Environmental Biosensors
Awardees: Julie Kornfield and Dianne Newman
3D spatial mapping of microbial genetic interactions to improve modeling of marine carbon sequestration
Awardees: Rustem Ismagilov and Victoria Orphan
2024
In Vitro Synthesis for High-Throughput Engineering and Phage-Inspired Designs
Awardees: William M. Clemons and Kaihang Wang
Engineering plant-microbe communities for sustainable agriculture
Awardees: Gözde Demirer and Trevor Nolan
Elucidating Biomolecular Spin Decoherence Mechanisms
Awardees: Ryan Hadt and Doug Rees
Programming Sequential Behaviors in intact animals
Awardees: Paul Sternberg and Elizabeth Hong
2023
Engineering Protein Antibiotics
Awardees: William M. Clemons (CCE) and Stephen L. Mayo (BBE)
Recreating Microbial Phase Variation to Engineer Synthetic Microbial Communities
Awardees: Michael B. Elowitz (BBE) and Richard M. Murray (EAS)
Unlocking Endogenous RNAs as Triggers For Cell-Selective Spatiotemporal Control in Developing Embryos
Awardees: Niles A. Pierce (BBE) and Marianne Bronner (BBE)
Transcriptional and Neural Activity Signatures of Memory
Awardees: Thanos Siapas (BBE) and Long Cai (BBE)
2022
Geometric design principles for mechanical structures to control bacteria distributions
Awardees: Chiara Daraio and John Brady
Quantitative measurements toward engineering the microbiome for inducing regeneration
Awardees: Lea Goentoro and Rustem Ismagilov
Programmable Actuation of 3D Micro-architected DNA Hydrogels
Awardees: Lulu Qian and Julia Greer
2021
A genetically-encoded sensor to label interacting cells with fast temporal dynamics
Awardees: Carlos Lois and Angelike Stathopoulos
Harnessing microbial consortia from extreme environments by making them feel at home
Awardees: Julia Kornfield and Katherine Faber & Victoria Orphan
Wearable Sensor for Addictive Drug Monitoring
Awardees: Wei Gao and Henry Lester
Medical Polymers that Undergo Remotely Actuated Shape Change for Surgical Applications
Awardees: Robert Grubbs, Mikhail Shapiro and Chiara Daraio
2020
Wearable Patches for Wound and Inflammation Monitoring
Awardees: Chiara Daraio and Wei Gao
Engineering Replication-, Growth-, and Division-deficient E. coli for Safe, Stable and Efficient Function
Awardees: Richard Murray and Kaihang Wang
Engineering Species Interactions by Reprogramming Animal Glands
Awardees: Joseph Parker and Matt Thomson
Artificial Nucleic Acid Condensates for the Rapid Concentration of Bacteria from Blood
Awardees: Paul W.K. Rothemund and Rustem Ismagilov
Directed Evolution of Tailor-made Molecular Chaperones
Awardees: Shu-ou Shan and Mikhail Shapiro
Optimize Photoswitches to Support Investigation of Transcription Factor Dynamics in Vivo
Awardees: Angelike Stathopoulos and Lior Pachter
High-Resolution and Non-Perturbative Mapping for Single AAVs in Neurons and Brain Tissues by Stimulated Raman Scattering Imaging with A Minimum Deuterium Labeling Strategy
Awardees: Lu Wei and Viviana Gradinaru
Investigation Into the Use of Deep Learning to Continuous Embryo Developmental Study
Awardees: Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz and Changhuei Yang
2019
Jellyfish as inspiration for a shapeshifting material
Awardees: Rob Phillips and Lea Goentoro
Externally Triggered Polymer Microgel for Image-Guided Delivery of Biomolecules to the Intestine
Awardees: Robert Grubbs and Mikhail Shapiro
Entangled Excitation of Photodynamic Therapy Drugs
Awardees: Scott Cushing and Sarah Reisman
Spatiotemporal Control over Loss/Gain-of-Function in Developing Embryos using Conditional Guide RNAs and Viral Constructs
Awardees: Niles Pierce and Marianne Bronner
A system for specific delivery and dosage-independent control of MeCP2 expression in Rett syndrome gene therapy
Awardees: Viviana Gradinaru and Michael Elowitz
Computation microscopy correction of distortions in CLARITY bone sample fluorescence images
Awardees: Changhuei Yang and Viviana Gradinaru
Kinetics and Steady States of the de Duve Number: Intracellular Neural Drug Distribution via Multimodal Imaging of Fluorescent Biosensors and Stimulated Raman Scattering
Awardees: Lu Wei and Henry Lester
A microrobotic system guided by photoacoustic computed tomography for targeted navigation and drug delivery in vivo
Awardees: Lihong Wang and Wei Gao
Defining the design principles of cellular information demons
Awardees: Matt Thomson and David Van Valen
2018
A smart microcapsule for continuous gut metabolic monitoring
Awardees: Wei Gao and Azita Emami
Acoustic metamaterials for non-invasive neural imaging
Awardees: Chiara Daraio and Mikhail Shapiro
Advanced sample preparation for cryo-electron microscopy with single-molecule control
Awardees: Rebecca Voorhees and Michael Roukes
Cell type specific in situ brain engineering by in vivo gene editing
Awardees: Yuki Oka and Matt Thomson
Engineering population regulation of the gut microbiome to regulate inflammation in mouse models
Awardees: Sarkis Mazmanian and Richard Murray
Bacterial argonaute proteins as novel tools for genome engineering
Awardees: Alexei Aravin and Stephen Mayo
2017
Title: Proving the possibility of multiplexed single-cell RNA sequencing of bacteria
Awardees: Rustem Ismagilov and Matt Thomson
Title: Selective killing of latently-infected CD4+ T-cells by conditionally replicating viruses that detect HIV transcripts
Awardees: Pamela Bjorkman and Niles Pierce
Title: Genetically encoded magnetoreceptors for noninvasive control of cellular function
Awardees: Mikhail Shapiro, Markus Meister and Carlos Lois
2016
Engineered viruses for large-scale targeted genetic manipulation in mice
Awardees: Carlos Lois and Viviana Gradinaru
Constraining the mechanisms of extracellular electron transfer (EET) in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms by studying the effects of eDNA-binding on phenazine reactivity
Awardees: Dianne Newman and Jacqueline Barton
A Miniature, wireless and implantable intraocular pressure sensor
Awardees: Yu-Chong Tai and Azita Emami
3-Dimensional Nano-Architectures for In-Vivo Biomedical Measurements
Awardees: Julia Greer and Joel Burdick
Visualizing nicotine entry into midbrain dopaminergic neurons
Awardees: Henry Lester and Changhuei Yang
2015
Dynamic single-cell imaging of long-range physical interactions among regulatory DNA elements and target genes
Awardees: Ellen Rothenberg and Barbara Wold
Research Project Award Highlights
The Rosen Research Project Awards provide not only fantastic opportunities for collaboration between laboratories, they also provide young, upcoming researchers with leadership experience in managing a research project and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students. - Dr. Sarkis Mazmanian and Dr. Richard Murray
The work supported by the Rosen Center led to an award from the Moore Foundation to the Thomson Lab to characterize active matter systems composed of a range of different motor and filament proteins, and an award from the Rita Allen Foundation to the Van Valen Lab to study information transmission in cell signaling networks. The deep learning methods supported by the Rosen Center will be used to analyze data from both projects. – Dr. Matt Thomson and Dr. David Van Valen
This program greatly facilitated the collaboration between our labs, and together we developed successful data that led to a high-impact publication and external joint funding to continue support of our research project. – Dr. Azita Emami and Dr. Wei Gao
Funded by the Rosen Center, our joint publication in Science Robotics was highlighted in Caltech News, Optics & Photonics News, New Scientist, the New York Post, and MSN. – Dr. Lihong Wang and Dr. Wei Gao.
Past Rosen Research Project Awards
Frances Arnold and Richard Murray "Systems Engineering of Microbial Stress Response"
John O. Dabiri for graphic design services to develop visual elements for an advanced biomechanics textbook
Chin Lin Guo "Engineering Self-assembled Tubular Systems"
Richard Murray "Forced Response Analysis of Biomolecular Circuits"
Richard Murray, iGEM Team funding to allow a group of Caltech undergraduate students to compete in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition
Rob Phiillips "Teaching at the Interface: A Vision for Quantitative Biology"
Erik Winfree hosted the 17th International Conference on DNA Computing and Molecular Programming (DNA17) at Caltech