The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) has announced multiyear grants totaling roughly $14 million to four research collaboratives working to develop new tools for analyzing cells and biomolecules.

Part of CZI’s Exploratory Cell Networks Projects initiative to develop technologies to engineer cell and tissue models, explore cellular responses to genetic and environmental stressors, and understand RNA’s role in metabolism, the grants include a three-year, $4 million award to the University of California, Los Angeles Samueli School of Engineering, which will fund research in collaboration with the California Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California to examine the role of cellular behavior in developing immunity to pathogens and disease; and a three-year, $3 million grant to Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University, which will fund a project to map and manipulate biological networks, with a focus on enzymes critical to the transfer of energy within cells.

Two additional grants—estimated to be between $3 and $4 million—were awarded, including one to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, which will collaborate with Scripps Research and the University of California, San Diego to develop novel technologies that improve understanding of how cells respond and adapt to genetic and environmental stresses, including aging and diseases linked to RNA dysregulation, such as Alzheimer’s disease; and the other to Princeton University, Rockefeller University, and the University of Pennsylvania, which will fund the development of mapping technologies to clarify how RNA and proteins move and are metabolized within cells.

“We believe that scientific collaborations bring together new ideas and approaches that rapidly accelerate the pace of progress, making it natural for us to foster these enabling, cross-lab partnerships,” said CZI vice president of science grant programs Scott Fraser. “Collaboration and building communities of researchers are central to our grantmaking strategy, and we’re excited to see what our new Exploratory Cell Networks teams will accomplish.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Dr_Microbe)