Before highlighting the content of the inaugural Forum, which included an introduction by Boyd Professor Nicolas Bazan, MD, PhD, and which featured Chancellor Jim Dalton, PhD, as its guest speaker and discussant, it will be worthwhile to explain the broader goals of CREST Centers in general, the Innovation Front Porch Forum in particular, and protein nanomotors at the heart of its research.  

What Is CREST and What Are Protein Nanomotors?

A CREST Center is not simply a research grant. Rather, NSF views a CREST Center as a vehicle for building institution-wide research and training capacity, thus creating a sustainable, nationally competitive research enterprise – with education, faculty development, student development, and broader community impact integrated into that effort. Dr. Kim was awarded her CREST award to establish a research center dedicated to understanding protein nanomotors – nature's microscopic machines.

The CREST-AND Center will investigate how these remarkable molecular machines are biologically engineered to generate and modify mechanical forces and how they interact with the cell's internal framework, other molecular motors, and naturally occurring molecules. Although protein nanomotors are far too small to see with standard microscopes, specialized imaging and other advanced technology show that they perform essential tasks inside living cells – helping to move materials, organize cellular structures, and enable cells to function and respond to their environment. At its core, the Center is seeking to understand how nature builds, controls, and adapts these tiny biological machines. Hence the term “adaptive nanomotor development.”

This work is fundamental science, but it also has the potential to create new opportunities in medicine, biotechnology, and engineering. A better understanding of molecular motors could help scientists identify mechanisms involved in disease and, ultimately, specify potential new therapeutic targets. Knowledge of how cells naturally move and deliver molecular cargo can also inspire new approaches to targeted drug delivery and other biomedical technologies. More broadly, nature's ability to create efficient machines at the molecular scale may provide insights into principles than can foster the development of new technologies. Overall, the CREST-AND Center will leverage this scientific effort to strengthen LSU's research enterprise more broadly, develop the next generation of scientists, and work with industry to promulgate opportunities for commercialization.

The August 19th Innovation Front Porch Forum

Another important goal of the Center is to connect LSU's scientific expertise with schools, educators, community organizations, industry, and other partners. Outreach and engagement will help broaden participation in STEM and share the excitement and potential of modern biological science with the wider community. To achieve this goal, Dr. Kim planned the “Innovation Front Porch Forums,” the first of which occurred on August 19th.

The Forum itself proceeded in three parts:

• Dr. Kim first described her journey from initial work on molecular nanomotors to the CREST Center. She traced a 20-year process beginning with post-Katrina rebuilding of laboratories and scientific relationships, proceeding to successful peer mentoring of two generations of investigators, and finally culminating in CREST-AND. Key points in Dr. Kim’s presentation included building research capacity, connecting disciplines and institutions, and translating discoveries into meaningful real-world impact.

• Next, Dr. Dalton told his fascinating story – both scientific and personal – of the long and winding road between drug discovery and commercialization. Dr. Dalton’s story focused on a novel non-steroidal molecule developed in his laboratory that is a first-in-class “selective androgen receptor modulator” (SARM). The molecule was designed to preserve or build lean muscle mass (e.g., in cancer patients with cachexia), without producing undesirable effects in other androgen-sensitive tissues. While the selective effect on muscle was shown in phase 3 trials – a process that entailed a years-long, many-step ordeal with variable regulatory requirements, and a leave from academia to start a company and raise funds to support it – the results did not reach the required regulatory improvement in physical function, as measured by stair-climbing performance. Reaching that point required years of research, evolving regulatory requirements, Dr. Dalton’s temporary departure from academia to guide preclinical and clinical studies, and substantial fundraising to support clinical development.  But yet the story continues! This molecule may be useful in combination with GLP-1 drugs to preserve muscle mass while body weight declines.
  

• Finally, Dr. Dalton engaged in conversation with Dr. Kim and the audience.  A robust discussion centered on science, entrepreneurship, translation, and the challenges involved in moving discoveries from the lab toward practical application.
  

The Forum was very well received, with approximately 110 attendees and representatives from 10 community organizations in the audience. Even more encouraging, the event generated meaningful follow-up opportunities in research partnerships, entrepreneurship, and trainee development. The Forum demonstrated that bringing industry leaders to campus will create natural, low-barrier opportunities for our faculty and trainees to explore potential research partnerships through direct, in-person conversations. Recurring forum engagements will no doubt also help us learn from different models of academic-industry collaboration and technology transfer, while identifying ways in which LSU Health's scientific strengths might align with areas of strategic importance to industry.

Equally encouraging momentum was seen among our trainees. Medical students interested in entrepreneurship can now begin to develop their ideas toward participation in national pitch competitions. At the Forum, they had the opportunity to meet directly with Louisiana Economic Development leadership, which immediately broadened their understanding of the state's innovation ecosystem and the resources available to them. CREST-AND will also provide financial support for their participation in the LSU Baton Rouge I-Corps program, helping them strengthen their entrepreneurial skills.

Dr. Sunyoung Kim

Dr. Kim’s path to science began with a childhood fascination: how could living systems build such extraordinary complexity from a limited set of parts? That question led her to the University of Michigan for doctoral training, including research at the University of Padua in Italy, and then to postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota. At Michigan, she met Dr. Edward Wojcik, who became her husband, an intellectual partner, and, later, a collaborator in molecular motor research. 

Their complementary perspectives – hers in biochemistry and biophysics, his in genetics and cell biology – would prove especially powerful. In 2005, Dr. Kim joined LSU Health New Orleans, attracted by the opportunity to build an independent research program in a collaborative institution serving a distinctive community. Hurricane Katrina soon tested that decision and taught her that institutions can disappear more quickly than the questions that give scientific lives meaning. 

A period at Harvard Medical School then immersed Drs. Kim and Wojcik in kinesin science and redirected her longstanding interest in biological energy conversion toward molecular nanomotors – tiny machines that organize, transport, and divide living cells.  They then rebuilt their home and laboratories at LSU Health, because the LSU Health community demonstrated extraordinary resilience, creativity, partnership, and commitment to community. CREST-AND is the culmination of that journey: a center connecting structural biology, genetics, imaging, artificial intelligence, and workforce development to understand adaptive nanomotors while building enduring scientific capacity. Beyond the laboratory, she values family life, mentoring young scientists, entrepreneurship, and the culture and community of New Orleans – interests that keep science connected to people and place.

Summary

NSF explicitly states that it expects CREST awardees to "catalyze institutional transformation" by developing research capabilities aligned with the institution's long-term missions. It also expects Centers to leverage CREST funding into additional federal, state, local, private-sector, and philanthropic investment. Thus, the goal of CREST-AND at LSU Health New Orleans is not simply to fund five years of research; it is to use research as a catalyst to strengthen the institution's long-term capacity for discovery, education, innovation, and community impact.

Specifically, our NSF CREST Center will strengthen our capacity to conduct nationally competitive research. It will bring together faculty, students, and external partners to advance important scientific questions while building research infrastructure and developing faculty research careers. It will provide students with hands-on opportunities to participate in discovery and entrepreneurship. The Center will also broaden participation in STEM, develop educational and community partnerships, and leverage the research and collaborations generated through the award to attract additional external funding and create a sustainable research enterprise.

In this light, we are extremely grateful to Dr. Kim and the others who contributed to the CREST-AND grant for bringing this potentially transformative NSF-funded opportunity to LSU Health New Orleans.