{"id":18210,"date":"2025-09-23T05:17:03","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/?p=18210"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:15:07","slug":"brian-cleary-nih-grant-gene-expression-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/2025\/09\/23\/brian-cleary-nih-grant-gene-expression-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Cleary Awarded $2.25M NIH Grant to Advance Single-Cell Gene Expression Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston University\u2019s Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences<\/a> (CDS) is proud to announce that Brian Cleary<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Computing & Data Sciences, Biology, and Biomedical Engineering, has secured a $2.25 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support his groundbreaking research in computational biology. Cleary is the sole principal investigator (PI) on the five-year project, \u201cMeasuring and modeling gene expression trajectories: new computational-experimental approaches<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Brian Cleary, Assistant Professor, BU Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The research aims to deepen understanding of how gene expression changes over time within single cells\u2014an area central to development, tissue function, and disease progression. Cleary\u2019s approach combines new computationally informed experimental strategies, methods to track RNA across multiple timepoints, and tools to model RNA velocity vector fields. The result will be a more systematic, quantitative understanding of how cell physiology influences \u201ctotal RNA velocity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project will be housed in Cleary\u2019s Algorithmic Lens on Biology Lab<\/a>, part of CDS\u2019s growing AI for Science initiative. By uniting computation with experimental design, the lab seeks to build tools that advance both fundamental biology and biomedical applications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis integrative approach, blending data science, machine learning, and experimental biology, represents exactly the kind of interdisciplinary innovation that defines CDS,\u201d said Azer Bestavros<\/a>, Associate Provost for Computing & Data Sciences. \u201cBrian\u2019s work not only pushes the boundaries of computational biology but also exemplifies how data science can accelerate discovery in the life sciences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NIH award provides $550,000 in its first year, with a total of $2.25 million committed over five years. At a time of federal funding delays, the project still earned exceptional review scores, underscoring its significance and potential impact.<\/p>\n

In addition to his role in the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences<\/a>, Cleary is a core faculty member in the Bioinformatics Program<\/a> and holds appointments in the Biology<\/a> and Biomedical Engineering<\/a> departments, as well as the Biological Design Center<\/a> (BDC) at the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read about the recent accomplishment recognized by the National Institutes of Health of CDS Assistant Professor Brian Cleary for his work in bioinformatics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25279,"featured_media":13139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[253,5,244],"tags":[879,27,577,450,525,477,878],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18210"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25279"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18210"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19653,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18210\/revisions\/19653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cds-faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}