E-RISE RII: Cracking the developmental blueprint of life: Omics, computational science, and artificial intelligence

This project aims to develop transformative science in Puerto Rico by tackling a fundamental problem of developmental biology and evolution, using two butterfly model systems. The project will integrate a diverse set of omics, developmental, and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to illuminate the genome-to-phenome pathway of a complex trait at a cellular level.

The project aspires to create a detailed map of molecular processes for evolutionary comparisons. It brings together a multidisciplinary team of researchers spread across seven academic institutions within the University of Puerto Rico system and led by the University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras. Researchers will partner with Puerto Rico’s Department of Economic Development and Commerce, the Puerto Rico Science, Technology & Research Trust, and the Molecular Science Research Center to foster innovation, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship on the island, ultimately impacting its economy via the development of high-tech infrastructures and a highly trained STEM workforce.

The project’s workforce development initiative integrates STEM education and interventions to cultivate skills for both academic and non-academic careers and includes activities such as curriculum enhancement, research opportunities, and workshops/seminars on topics spanning entrepreneurship, science communication, omics, software carpentry, and machine learning.

The project will address a scientifically important topic: the mechanistic underpinnings that instruct cells to undergo particular fates and acquire diverse functions to build homologous tissues, organs, and traits over the course of development and evolution. The highly interdisciplinary research team will use the unique strengths of two nontraditional butterfly model systems, the monarch (Danaus plexippus) and the zebra longwing (Heliconius charithonia).

The project’s ambition is to decode the genomic architecture and molecular logic of the differentiation and function of cells and organs during the entire developmental trajectory of an organism. The proposed research is well-aligned with Puerto Rico’s Science & Technology plan and involves four Aims, including understanding the constraints and freedoms in organismal development (genomics focus), deciphering the molecular toolkit for building a butterfly (molecular architecture focus), understanding a butterfly wing’s cell differentiation and the development of wing scales with unique colors (cellular fate focus), and building cyberinfrastructure to find patterns across omics data (focus on scalability, data integration, and artificial intelligence (AI) predictability).

Scientific outputs will include extensive butterfly genomes and functional omics data. Outreach activities will utilize the project’s butterfly rearing facility and CRISPR technology for STEM education tailored to K-12 teacher/students, in addition to podcasts and social media content that will connect scientists from the project to the rest of the jurisdiction to showcase the human side of science and raise awareness of the project’s scientific endeavors.

This project is funded by the NSF EPSCoR Research Incubators for STEM Excellence (E-RISE) RII Program. The E-RISE RII program supports the development and implementation of sustainable broad networks of individuals, institutions, and organizations that will transform the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) research capacity and competitiveness in a jurisdiction within a field of research aligned with the jurisdiction's science and technology priorities.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.