In July 1995, the
Biotechnology Research Subcommittee (BRS), an Inter Agency
Coordinating Committee under the office of Science and
Technology Policy (OSTP), released the report
"Biotechnology for the 21st Century: New Horizons"
that identifies research priorities and opportunities in
biotechnology. This report described the promise of this new
technology and included an assessment of federal roles relating
to its advancement. One of the research priorities included the
need for a better understanding of metabolic pathways and
metabolic engineering in living systems. To stimulate increased
awareness and attention to this field, the BRS established the
MEWG. The MEWG is comprised of representatives from eight
federal agencies who work together to facilitate assistance to
those investigating application of metabolic engineering
principles in a wide range of areas.
Metabolic Engineering is a new
approach to understanding and using metabolic processes. As the
name implies, ME is the targeted and purposeful alteration of
metabolic pathways found in an organism in order to better
understand and use cellular pathways for chemical
transformation, energy transduction, and supramolecular
assembly. Knowledge acquired from this research will benefit
society in a number of ways, including the ability to modify
biological pathways to produce biological substitutes for less
desirable chemical processes; allowing greater agricultural
production, permitting more efficient and safer energy
production, and; providing better understanding of the metabolic
basis for some medical conditions that could assist in the
development of new cures.
To accomplish its mandate, the
MEWG has been active through monthly meetings, annual workshops
and occasional seminars. From these interagency sessions, two
major initiatives were identified: announcements of interagency,
rather than agency-specific opportunities for funding research
grants, and; the beginnings of a government-wide Metabolic
Engineering Project Inventory. The preceding link provides
access to that Inventory.
Amongst these various activities,
MEWG has held five grant competitions (NSF 98-49, NSF 99-85, NSF
01-19, NSF 02-37, and NSF 03-516). The first competition resulted in 19
proposals with five awards totalling $3.6M, the second
competition resulted in 29 proposals with six awards totalling
$3.1M, the third competition resulted in 13 awards made from
33 proposals with total funding of $7.5 million, the fourth competition
resulted in 11 awards made from 47 proposals with total funding
of $7.6 million, and the fifth competition resulted in 10 awards
made from 41 proposals with total funding of $5.7 million. In addition the MEWG has held several workshops.
Although the MEWG welcomes
everyone to peruse this site, MEWG workgroup members, Federal
research Program Managers, and researchers are the intended
audience and will be expected to use this site in different
ways. Program managers will look for projects related to those
they are funding or intend to fund and for potential applicants
to whom they might address invitations to apply to
announcements. They also will look for meetings and other events
open to them. The Metabolic Engineering Workgroup Members will
look for trends in research funding in order to plan future
joint announcements of opportunities and to plan other
activities, such as workshops, based on current research.
Information on principal investigators may help in selecting
speakers for meetings. Researchers will want to see which
agencies are funding specific types of projects, in order to
focus their research plans. They may also be interested in
activities sponsored by the Working Group.
Department
of Agriculture
Contacts:Liang-Shiou
Lin/Gail McLean/Chavonda
Jacobs-Young
Department
of Defense
Contacts:Harold
Bright/Eric
Eisenstadt
Department
of Energy
Contacts:Valerie
Sarisky-Reed/Daniel
Drell
Environmental
Protection Agency
Contacts:Michael
Broder /Mark Segal/Barbara
Karn/April Richards
National
Aeronautics Space Administration
Contact:Steven
Davison
National
Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH)
Contacts:Warren
Jones/Jim Anderson
National
Institute of Standards and Technology
Contact:Vincent
Vilker /Travis
Gallagher
National
Science Foundation
Contacts:Fred
G. Heineken/James Lee/Cecilia
McIntosh
