Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded the University of Maryland, Baltimore $466,500 under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) on February 1, 2026, with a completion date of January 31, 2031. This Project Grant supports a five-year research initiative investigating the relationship between gut microbial protein metabolism and oral immunotherapy (OIT) efficacy in pediatric food allergy treatment. The research aims to elucidate why some patients respond to peanut OIT while others do not, with particular focus on how the gut microbiome's capacity to metabolize allergenic proteins—specifically those encoded by the tripeptidyl-peptidase (PTPA) gene—correlates with treatment outcomes and allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels.

The deliverables include three interlinked investigations examining the mechanisms by which gut microbial metabolism of peanut proteins influences OIT success rates. Study 1 will assess the association between individual response to peanut OIT and the gut microbiome's ability to metabolize peanut proteins, while investigating how specific allergenic peanut proteins reach the lower gastrointestinal tract. These research activities will generate scientific data, molecular mechanism analyses, and mechanistic insights intended to improve understanding of food allergy treatment responses and potentially inform personalized therapeutic approaches for food-allergic pediatric patients.