The U.S. National Science Foundation Artificial Intelligence-driven RNA Foundry (NSF AIRFoundry), led by Penn and the University of Puerto Rico, and supported by an $18-million, six-year grant from NSF, will create an exciting new “BioFoundry” facility to design, optimize and synthesize new RNA molecules and delivery vehicles to accelerate discovery and innovation. The goal of the NSF AIRFoundry is to make cutting-edge RNA research accessible to the broader scientific community to empower scientists to tackle some of the world’s biggest challenges, from health care to environmental sustainability.
The NSF AIRFoundry will bring together researchers from Penn Engineering, Penn Medicine’s Institute for RNA Innovation, the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez, Drexel, CHOP and InfiniFluidics, a Penn spinout. InfiniFluidics was co-founded by Daeyon Lee, PhD, the Russell Pearce and Elizabeth Crimian Heuer Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Penn Engineering, David Issadore, PhD, Professor in Bioengineering at Penn Engineering and Sagar Yadavali, PhD, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Issadore and Lee labs and now the CEO of the company. Read more here.