711th Human Performance Wing Gets its Moneys Worth in Three WBI-led Synthetic Biology Grand Challenges

03.01.22 10:36 AM By Jennie Hempstead

The trio of AFRL’s Synthetic Biology Grand Challenges has wrapped up on time and on budget, and the architect of the third challenge has become a believer.

Dr. Michael Goodson, research scientist at the laboratory’s 711th Human Performance Wing, designed the third challenge: GC3: Probiotic for Human Performance and Sustainment. Government-sponsored Grand Challenges are a non-traditional means of discovering potential partnerships that may not be found or available using traditional Department of Defense avenues. WBI provides the platform to advise and execute Grand Challenges for the Air Force. 

Grand Challenges solicit outside entities – usually from industry and academia – to innovate new technologies. The Challenges can draw outside-the-box thinkers and small companies that may not have the capital to invest in this sort of undertaking.

According to the government website, “Grand Challenges are ambitious but achievable goals that harness science, technology and innovation to solve important national or global problems and that have the potential to capture the public’s imagination.”

In Dr. Goodson’s Challenge, he hoped to put a theory to the test. Can probiotics be leveraged to enhance human performance?

“Who knows how well this will work,” he said. “It’s very conceptual. We know these things are likely to help, so let’s put it all together and see if it does.”

AFRL’s Grand Challenges were administered by Wright Brothers Institute through its Partnership Intermediary Agreement. This freed the sponsoring scientists from paperwork and government red tape. In the end, Dr. Goodson said, “I wasn’t expecting it to go as well as it did.

“It’s just one year. The money’s not insubstantial, but the time frame was going to be the challenge,” he said. “It was clear the time challenge was a big part of our decision.

“We got fantastic proposals, and it was a nice dilemma to have. There were three or four that were clearly amazing – people in the field you read about. The selection committee pulled out the top one after a lot of great deliberation – the big question was, ‘Who’s likely to be able to do this in a year’ In the end, we went with the MIT – Tufts - Synlogic team.”

Working with WBI in this capacity means, “We award (the Challenge prize) and the money’s there,” said Dr. Goodson. “That’s brilliant. This has been, and continues to be, a phenomenal experience, and the Grand Challenge is on track to deliver.”


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Jennie Hempstead