2018-2020 Assessment of the Army Research Office (2021) / Chapter Skim
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9 Life Sciences Division
9 Life Sciences Division
Pages 73-82
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From page 73... ...
BIOCHEMISTRY PROGRAM Overall Scientific Quality and Degree of Innovation Moving biology outside the cellular environment is a promising direction for high-impact discoveries in biochemistry and biomaterials. Determining the structure and function of macromolecules so that we can modify them in useful ways will require an increased understanding of biological pathways, 1 Army Research Laboratory, Army Research Office, https://www.arl.army.mil/www/default.cfm?
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From page 74... ...
Ellington/Glotzer are applying understanding of shape, packing, and assembly of patchy nanoparticles to develop generalizable design principles for protein assembly via charge complementarity. Ellis/Lee are investigating interface synthetic biology and materials science to manipulate the microstructure of bacterial cellulose for reinforcement of lightweight transparent polymeric armor materials.
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From page 75... ...
Plant species grow in different niches and bloom at different times, surface samples typically contain pollen from multiple species, and species identification can reveal where the item came from, sometime narrowing the source down to tens of square miles but at other times pointing to a single building. Current state of the art is microscopic analysis, done by an expert forensic palynologist, which requires 2 weeks (and expert forensic palynologists are in short supply)
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From page 76... ...
There is a substantial program of projects on mitochondrial genomic integrity and regulation with the eventual goal of extending warfighters' health, performance, and longevity in active service. The mitochondrial health project presented is a high-risk/high-payoff project that grew out of an initial observation that zebra fish and rodents can be put into a state of suspended animation, with no heartbeat or brain activity, by exposure to hydrogen sulfide, and that these organisms can be brought back to life after several hours of exposure and suffer no detectable adverse effects.
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From page 77... ...
MICROBIOLOGY PROGRAM Overall Scientific Quality and Degree of Innovation The goal of the Microbiology Program is to identify and understand the fundamental principles governing microbial communities and their eukaryotic interactions, with the eventual goal of exploiting microbiome capabilities for biomanufacturing and for enhanced warfighter performance and protection. The program focuses on three general topics -- two associated with analysis and understanding of bacterial communities and one focused on metabolic programming under environmental stress.
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From page 78... ...
The project to investigate how two different Clostridia share metabolic capabilities and the microfluidics project were at an earlier stage, and at this point, its accomplishments are provocative and promising. It is difficult to evaluate the overall quality of the entire set of projects being supported because all projects were not presented to the panel.
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From page 79... ...
That said, to adaptively integrate human function in the context of more complex multiscale modeled systems suggests the importance of incorporating more research focused on human neurocognitive systems in the portfolio. Significant Accomplishments The scientific quality both in larger scale MURI projects and in single investigator projects presented is very strong.
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From page 80... ...
SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES PROGRAM Overall Scientific Quality and Degree of Innovation The vision of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Program is to identify and characterize micro-tomacro links tying human characteristics to population dynamics embedded within natural and physical systems to improve detection of emerging social dynamics and security risks in multidomain operations. The program has three strategic objectives: (1)
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From page 81... ...
Relevance and Transitions The potential long-term applications of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Program's projects are readily apparent, with the ability to predict social unrest and to understand influence networks being particularly important. Current transitions consists of briefings of results and predictive models of human errors, human behavior, and sociopolitical dynamics delivered to and used by the U.S.
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From page 82... ...
to work together on a single SI grant. This mechanism for crossing disciplinary boundaries to accomplish innovative studies has produced outstanding results.
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