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Chemical biology at the US National Science Foundation

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Chemical biology continues to grow and blur the theoretical and empirical boundaries between chemistry and biology. Federal funding agencies, including the US National Science Foundation, will be essential to support the development of interdisciplinary research fields.

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Figure 1: Evolution of research and education programs from disciplinary 'silos' to an integrated transdisciplinary program in which the original disciplines meld.
Figure 2: NSF research grants for single investigators and multiple principal investigator awards by percentage of value of grants and number of grants.

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Acknowledgements

We thank C. Liarakos, B. Miller, L. Echegoyen and C. Gabriel (National Science Foundation) for their valuable input to this commentary. We also thank A. Kinzig (Arizona State University) for her contributions to the development of Figure 1, and E. Velo (National Science Foundation) for her invaluable assistance in providing the data depicted in Figure 2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wilfredo Colón is a rotator Program Director from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and has a shared appointment in the Division of Chemistry in the Directorate for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences and the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences in the Directorate for Biological Sciences, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22230, USA. wcolon@nsf.gov,

    Wilfredo Colón

  2. and Joanne S. Tornow and Parag Chitnis are the Acting Division Director and Acting Deputy Division Director, in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences within the Directorate for Biological Sciences., James P. Collins is the Assistant Director for the Directorate for Biological Sciences, respectively,

    Parag Chitnis, James P Collins & Joanne S Tornow

  3. and Janice Hicks is the Executive Officer for the Chemistry Division within the Directorate for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences., Tony Chan is the Assistant Director for the Directorate for the Mathematical and Physical Sciences,

    Janice Hicks & Tony Chan

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  1. Wilfredo Colón
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  2. Parag Chitnis
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  3. James P Collins
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Colón, W., Chitnis, P., Collins, J. et al. Chemical biology at the US National Science Foundation. Nat Chem Biol 4, 511–514 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0908-511

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