PROtein SEquencing (PROSE) Program Announcement

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is soliciting innovative proposals in the following technical area: protein sequencing. Proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems. Specifically excluded is research that primarily results in evolutionary improvements to the existing state of practice.
A technical approach must provide a detailed scientific and technical justification that includes the following:
• Existing protein read capabilities including, but not limited to, read elements, measurement instrumentation and letter calling algorithms
• Clear technical plan to adapt existing read capabilities to achieve Phase 1 metrics
• Anticipated pre-processing steps required to adapt purified protein samples to the proposed sequencing approach
• Development of an integrated microsystem capable of achieving Phase 2 metrics
• Development of algorithms for letter calling capable of translating raw signal data into a specific amino acid sequence, along with an associated accuracy score
• Development of an integrated systems model to simulate accuracy, throughput, noise, and other relevant microsystem characteristics
• A list of at least 50 proposer-defined post-translational modifications, non-canonical amino acids, stereoisomers, etc. (i.e., letters)
• A commercialization strategy for advanced development of the protein sequencing technology beyond the PROSE program
• A plan to meet CUI requirements for the program

Specifically excluded are proposals that involve:
• Methods that are reliant upon the availability of a reference sequence (i.e., protein fingerprinting approaches)
• Approaches that cannot scale to meet throughput metrics
• Approaches that cannot scale to read the wide chemical complexity of amino acids and modified amino acids
• Approaches that do not include the development of a microsystem (e.g., CMOS, photonic ICs)