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MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOSCIENCES $111,556,000
The FY 2003 Budget Request for the Molecular and Cellular
Biosciences (MCB) Subactivity is $111.56 million, a decrease of $3.04
million, or 2.7 percent, from the FY 2002 Current Plan of $114.60 million.
(Millions of Dollars)
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FY 2001
Actual
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FY 2002
Current Plan
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FY 2003
Request
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Change
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Amount
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Percent
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Molecular & Cellular Biosciences Research Projects
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114.13
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114.60
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111.56
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-3.04
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-2.7%
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Total, Molecular & Cellular Biosciences
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$114.13
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$114.60
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$111.56
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-$3.04
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-2.7%
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All biological processes, taking place at the molecular
through ecosystem levels, contribute to the overall imprint of life on
this planet. It is the objective of MCB to promote fundamental understanding
of the ground rules of molecular and cellular interactions and dynamics.
These ground rules provide the framework for understanding multi-scale,
complex biological systems and their interactions with the physical world.
This is accomplished by supporting innovative and transformative
research on complex biological systems, from the individual biomolecule
to the cell across a wide range of organisms. Such complex biological
questions require the tools of genomics, information science, and mathematics
to achieve insights into the molecular mechanisms by which genetic information
is expressed and the processes by which living cells are organized, communicate,
and respond to environmental signals. Such challenging questions increasingly
require collaborations of biological scientists with those in the physical
sciences, mathematics, computer science, and engineering. MCB is purposefully
forging partnerships with these disciplines, with the goals of introducing
new analytical and conceptual tools to the biological scientist, as well
as providing unique training environments for the biologists of the future.
In FY 2003, activities in the MCB Subactivity are decreased
by $3.04 million. This reflects the restructuring of the BIO budget to
establish the new Emerging Frontiers Subactivity, which was established
as an incubator for evolving multidisciplinary research and networking
activities. Within the budget request, MCB will include enhanced support
for:
- Genome-Enabled Science: The availability of the
genome sequences of organisms has enabled new approaches to the study
of biology, broadly referred to as "functional genomics" and
"genome-enabled science." Examples include analysis of microbial
genomes to discover new organisms, determine their genetic capabilities,
and study the diversity of metabolic functions that enable them to occupy
diverse habitats. Genome-enabled research also seeks to answer questions
such as which sets of genes are turned on or off in response to signals
from other organisms or from the environment, and how multiple metabolic
pathways are integrated to produce end products needed at particular
times in the life of a cell or an organism. The MCB investment will
advance genome-enabled research to promote fundamental understanding
of the diversity of organisms making up the natural world and will contribute
to applications in biotechnology, agriculture, and the environment.
- Example: MCB has supported studies of cell to cell chemical
signaling in bacteria, and its effects on expression of genes affecting
their population dynamics and adaptive responses. Bacteria have been
found to produce, release, detect and respond to signaling molecules
that accumulate in the environment as the cell population increases.
In the light-emitting bacterium Vibrio harveyi separate chemical
signals have been discovered for communication between cells and between
this and other species. Genomic analysis has shown that genes involved
in these responses are found in over thirty species of bacteria. Thus,
communication using this type of signaling system may be a common mechanism
that bacteria employ for interacting in natural environments. These
signaling systems have now been shown to operate in related organisms
of concern for public health, such as the organisms that cause typhoid
fever and cholera.
- Microbial Biology: Use of genetic and biochemical
approaches in addition to genomic approaches to characterize such basic
attributes of complex microbial systems represent steps toward developing
integrated models of microbial behavior, predicting microbial responses
to environmental factors, and planning and understanding the results
of long term studies of microbes in the environment such as are being
supported through the Microbial Observatories activity. These efforts
are consistent with priorities of the coordinated interagency coordinated
effort, "The Microbe Project." The Microbe Project is enhancing
knowledge of microbes by building needed infrastructure, promoting research
and developing human resources and an informed public. Participating
agencies include the USDA (lead), CIA, DoD, DOE, USGS, EPA, FDA, NASA,
NIH, NIST, NOAA and NSF. In FY 2001, a special competition to support
the DNA sequencing of microbes important in basic research and agriculture
was jointly managed by NSF and USDA.
- "2010 Project:" The MCB Subactivity
will continue to support research enabled by the availability of the
complete genome of Arabidopsis to determine the functions of
all the genes of this model flowering plant by the year 2010.
- Systems Biology: Theoretical, computational,
and mathematical modeling approaches are playing increasingly critical
roles in all areas of the molecular and cellular biosciences - in formulating
and testing physical and mathematical models of the structure and function
of complex molecules, macromolecular complexes, and cellular processes;
in modeling and simulation of the regulation and relationships of cellular
and metabolic processes; in analysis of genome data; and in other applications
in genetics and functional genomics. Perhaps the greatest computational
challenges facing the 21st Century Biology involve creation of multi-scale
models, which can incorporate our new understanding of structure and
interactions at all levels into a predictive whole. MCB will continue
to encourage integration of these approaches with experimental research
on molecules and cells in a wide range of biological systems to permit
the conceptualization of complex biological systems. MCB priorities
include development and application of new analytical tools for study
of biological molecules and cells.
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