is sponsored by...
First and foremost, Caltech:
the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences,
the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering;
the graduate options in Computer Science, Bioengineering, and Computation & Neural Systems;
the Information Science and Technology (IST) Centers for
Biological Circuit Design (CBCD) and the Physics of Information (CPI);
the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation's Programmable Molecular Technology Initiative
(PMTI);
the Carver Mead New Adventures Fund,
and the J Yang & Family Foundartion.
Active federal and international grants to E. Winfree:
- NSF CCF/FET: "Neural network computation and learning in well-mixed and spatially-organized molecular systems", Grant No. 2212546
(PI: L. Qian; 7/1/2022-6/30/2026)
- NSF CCF/FET: "Exploring the Computational Power of Stochastic Processes in Molecular Information Technology", Grant No. 2008589 (PI: E. Winfree; 8/1/2020-7/31/2023)
Expired federal grants to E. Winfree:
- NSF CCF/SHF: "A reconfigurable architecture for digital circuit computation by fast, robust, and leakless DNA strand displacement cascades", Grant No. 1718938 (PI: E. Winfree; 7/1/2017-6/30/2020)
- NSF CHE/CCF: "INSPIRE: Computational Parameterization of Nucleic Acid Secondary Structure Models", Grant No. 1643606 (PI: Niles Pierce, co-PI: Tom Miller), 9/1/2016-8/31/2021)
- NSF CCF: "Molecular Programming Architectures, Abstractions, Algorithms, and Applications", Grant No. 1317694 (co-PIs J. Bruck, R. Murray, N. Pierce, L. Qian, P.W.K. Rothemund, at Caltech; E. Klavins and G. Seelig on #1317653 at UW, W. Shih and P. Yin on #1317291 at Harvard, and S. Douglas on #1317640 at UCSF; 10/1/2013-9/30/2018)
- NSF CCF/HCC: "DNA Machine Builder: Creative Molecular-Machine Design Through Mass-Scale Crowdsourcing", Grant No. 1213127 (co-PIs Zoran Popovic, Seth Cooper, Georg Seelig, at UW and Lulu Qian at Caltech, 9/1/2012-8/31/2016)
- NSF CCF/SHF: "Scaling Up Programmable and Algorithmic DNA Self-Assembly", Grant No. 1162589 (co-PIs Damien Woods, David Doty at Caltech and Peng Yin at Harvard, 9/1/2012-8/31/2015)
- NSF CCF: "The Molecular Programming Project", Grant No. 0832824 (co-PIs P.W.K. Rothemund, N. Pierce, R. Murray, J. Bruck, E. Klavins, 8/15/2008-7/31/2013)
- NSF CCF/EMT/NANO: "Integration of DNA Nanotechnology with Nanoelectronics", Grant No. 0829951 (co-PIs P.W.K. Rothemund, Marc Bockrath, 9/1/2008-8/31/2011)
- NSF CCF/EMT/MISC: "Behavior Based Molecular Robotics", Grant No. 0829805 (collaborative with Milan Stojanovic, 9/1/2008-8/31/2011)
- NSF CCF/BIC/EMT: "Toward Large Scale Integrated Nucleic Acid Circuits", Grant No. 0728703 (co-PI Georg Seelig, Caltech. 9/15/2007-8/31/2010)
- FENA: "Bottom-Up Nanofabrication with DNA Self-Assembly", (subordinate to UCLA FENA Theme 2; co-PI P.W.K Rothemund, Caltech. 9/2006-8/2009)
- NSF CCF/NANO/EMT: "Toward Universal Bottom-Up Nanofabrication with DNA", Grant No. 0622254 (co-PIs N. Pierce, P.W.K Rothemund, M.W. Bockrath, Caltech; collaborative with B. Yurke, Bell Labs. 10/2006-9/2009)
- NSF CBET/NIRT: "Active Nanostructures for Nucleic Directed synthesis of Organic Functional Polymers", Grant No. 0608889 (PI N. Seeman, NYU; co-PIs W. Goddard, Caltech; W.-Q. Deng, Caltech; J. Canary, NYU. 10/2006-9/2010)
- HFSP: "Genetic coding and logical control for RNA molecular switches", Award No. RGY0074/2006-C (PI F. Simmel, U Munich. 5/2006-5/2009 w/ extension)
- NASA Astrobiology: "Enzyme-free In-vitro Evolution of DNA Tile Crystals as Model Primitive Organisms", Grant No. NNG06GA50G (Caltech. 11/2005-11/2008)
- NSF CHE/CBC: "Center for Molecular Cybernetics", Grant No.0533064 (collaborative center lead by M. Stojanovic, Columbia, which is 0533065. 9/2005-8/2008)
- NSF DMS: "Coarse-Graining DNA Energy Landscapes for the Analysis of Hybridization Kinetics", Grant No. 0506468 (PI N. Pierce, Caltech; co-PI H. Mabuchi, Caltech. 8/2005-7/2008)
- NSF CCF/BIC/EMT: "Cooperative and Adaptive Behaviors By Molecular Robots", Grant No.0523317 (PI M. Stojanovic, Columbia. 7/2005-6/2008)
- NSF CCF/NANO/EMT: "Algorithmic error-correction in biologically inspired self-assembly and computation", Grant No. 0523761 (collaborative with A. Goel, Stanford. 7/2005-6/2008)
- Microsoft: "Using Programmable Stacking Bonds to Combine DNA Origami into Larger, More Complex, Reconfigurable Structures", (co-PI: Paul W.K. Rothemund, Caltech. 6/2007-5/2008)
- NSF CCF/NANO/EMT: "Controlling Errors in Algorithmic Self-Assembly", Grant No. 0432193 (Caltech. 8/2004-7/2007)
- NSF CNS/CAREER/PECASE: "Foundations of Autonomous Biomolecular Computation", Grant No. 0093486, with supplement 0536822 (Caltech. 4/2001-3/2006)
- NSF CBET/NIRT/GOALI: "DNA-Based Nanomechanical devices", Grant No. 0103002 (PI N. Seeman, NYU; co-PI W. Goddard, Caltech. 8/2001-7/2005)
- ONR YIP: "Biomolecular Computing by In Vitro Transcriptional Networks", Grant No. N000140110813 (Caltech. 5/2001-4/2004)
- NSF EIA/ITR/SY(CISE): "Biomolecular Computing by DNA/Enzyme Systems", Grant No. 0113443 (co-PI H. Mabuchi, Caltech. 9/2001-8/2004)
- DARPA BioComputation Contract F30602-01-2-0561 (PI J. Reif, Duke; co-PI N. Seeman, NYU):
"Programmable DNA Lattices: Design, Synthesis, and Applications"
- NASA NRA (PI L. Adleman, USC; co-PI M. Huang, A. Goel, USC): "Biological Aspects of Computation", NASA NRA2-37143
We once received funding from GenTel; we had relationships with
Molecubotics, a visionary but struggling Bay Area start-up; and we also
interacted with Nanorex, the
developers of
Nanoengineer.
You might notice that our lab no longer takes funding from military
agencies. This was a conscious decision, made as my DARPA and ONR
grants from 2001 were expiring. My thinking about this is somewhat
similar to, but not identical to, Ben
Kuiper's reasons and Eric
Klavins' reasons. (His position has evolved:
part I,
part II.)
One thing to note is that NSF, FENA, and NASA
all interact with military funding agencies, and often funding
programs involve joint efforts -- so what difference does it make?
Read Ben's essay. For me, there is no question that it feels
different, and recognizing and acting on that feeling is important to
me.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed
in this web site (www.dna.caltech.edu) are the opinions of some,
all, or none of the members of the DNA Group, and do not necessarily
reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval
Research, DARPA, FENA, GenTel, Molecubotics, Nanorex, the Evans Foundation for Molecular Medicine,
or other members of the DNA Group.
Erik Winfree, last updated 7/13/2022