Cellular and Biochemical Engineering

Funding Agency:
National Science Foundation

The Cellular and Biochemical Engineering (CBE) program is part of the Engineering Biology and Health cluster, which also includes: 1) the Biophotonics program; 2) the Biosensing program; 3) the Disability and Rehabilitation Engineering program; and 4) the Engineering of Biomedical Systems program.

The Cellular and Biochemical Engineering program supports fundamental engineering research that advances understanding of cellular and biomolecular processes. CBE-funded research may lead to the development of enabling technology for advanced biomanufacturing of therapeutic cells, biochemicals, and biopharmaceuticals, and for other biotechnology industrie .

The program encourages highly innovative and potentially transformative engineering research leading to novel bioprocessing and biomanufacturing approaches. Fundamental to many CBE research projects is the understanding of how biomolecules, subcellular systems, cells, and cell populations interact, and how those interactions lead to changes in structure, function, and behavior. A quantitative treatment of problems related to biological processes is considered vital to successful research projects in the CBE program. 

 

Full Proposal Accepted Anytime

Agency Website

Areas of Interest

Major areas of interest for the program include:

  • Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology for biomanufacturing,
  • The design of synthetic metabolic components and synthetic cells, 
  • Microbiome structure, function, maintenance, and design,
  • Protein and enzyme engineering, and
  • Design of integrated chemoenzymatic systems.

The CBE program also encourages proposals that effectively integrate knowledge and practices from different disciplines while incorporating ongoing research into educational activities.

All proposals should include a description on the potential impact of proposed research on an associated biomanufacturing process.

Proposals whose core innovation involves tissue engineering, organ culture, development of models of healthy or diseased physiology, or design and application of technologies focused on the diagnosis or treatment of disease should be submitted to the Engineering of Biomedical Systems program (CBET 5345). 

Innovative proposals outside of these specific interest areas may be considered. However, prior to submission, it is recommended that the Principal Investigator contact the program director to avoid the possibility of the proposal being returned without review.

Amount Description

The duration of unsolicited proposal awards in CBET is generally up to three years.  Single-investigator award budgets typically include support for one graduate student (or equivalent) and up to one month of principal investigator time per year (awards for multiple investigator projects are typically larger). Proposal budgets that are much larger than typical should be discussed with the Program Director prior to submission. 

Funding Type

Grant

Eligibility

Faculty
Junior Faculty

Category

Engineering and Physical Sciences
Environmental & Life Sciences
Interdisciplinary
Medical
Medical - Basic Science
Medical - Translational