The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Science Foundation Artificial Intelligence-driven RNA Foundry (NSF AIRFoundry), led by Penn and the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez (UPR-M), is an $18-million initiative focused on advancing RNA research through AI-driven innovation and advanced manufacturing techniques.
Bringing together researchers from Penn Engineering, the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation, UPR-M, Drexel University, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Penn spinout InfiniFluidics, the facility, which will be located in West Philadelphia and at UPR-M, will focus on synthesizing RNA molecules and associated delivery systems. The goal is to make innovative RNA research accessible to a broad scientific community, potentially leading to new applications in healthcare, agriculture, and environmental sustainability.
The NSF AIRFoundry will be led by Daeyeon Lee, PhD, the Russell Pearce and Elizabeth Crimian Heuer Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in Penn Engineering working alongside other innovators at Penn, including Nobel Laureate Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research at Penn Medicine and director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation, and David Issadore, PhD, a professor in Bioengineering and in Electrical and Systems Engineering at Penn Engineering and the facility’s associate director of research coordination. Read more here.