The National Science Foundation (NSF) will award $818,420 in federal funding to the University to support research in molecular and cellular bioscience led by assistant professor Bryan Dickinson. 

The project will use rapid laboratory evolution systems to study how biological molecules evolve to interact with one another. “Funding through this honor will allow us to push our molecular evolution work toward important questions about the basic science of protein evolution,” Dickinson’s lab wrote on their website regarding the NSF grant. 

The grant will also be used to launch educational initiatives in biological engineering for Chicago-area students and adults. 

United States Representative Bobby Rush (D-IL), whose district includes the University and other parts of Hyde Park, pledged in a statement last Wednesday to “continue to seek federal research dollars to ensure that the First District of Illinois remains a national leader in innovation.” 

“This investment supports a robust learning environment that will solve engineering challenges and cultivate new technological approaches,” Rush said in the statement.