NEW COMPETITIVE COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT WITH UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON. UNDER FOA NUMBER DE-FOA-0002459 (OPEN 2021) WITH PROJECT TITLE ''HARVESTING INFRARED LIGHT TO IMPROVE PHOTOSYNTHETIC BIOMASS PRODUCTION''. UW WILL DEVELOP NEW BIOLOGICAL PHOTOSYNTHETIC SYSTEMS THAT EMPLOY SUNLIGHT FROM PREVIOUSLY UNDER-UTILIZED OR INACCESSIBLE REGIONS OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM TO PRODUCE CHEMICAL FUEL. UW WILL ACHIEVE THIS USING DE NOVO-PROTEIN DESIGN TO MAKE OUR ARTIFICIAL PHOTOSYNTHETIC STRATEGY GENETICALLY ENCODABLE AND THEREFORE SCALABLE. SUCCESS IN THIS PROJECT WOULD ENABLE BIOFUEL PRODUCTION FROM NEAR-INFRARED LIGHT (NIR) IN OXYGENIC PHOTOTROPHS, SHOWING THAT IT IS FEASIBLE TO REENGINEER THE LIGHT-HARVESTING AND CHARGE-SEPARATION REACTIONS THAT ARE THE FOUNDATION OF NATURAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS. IT WOULD ALSO OPEN THE DOOR TO MORE EXTENSIVE MODIFICATION OF BIOENERGETIC PATHWAYS TO OPTIMIZE BIOMASS PRODUCTION.