Project Grant F32AI194907
- This two-year Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Biological Infrastructure, under the Biological Sciences program (CFDA 47.074), provides $138,000 to explore the biophysical mechanisms and genetics influencing dendritic cell migration. The fellow will determine how dendritic cells push, pull, and squeeze through tissues using tunable biomaterials and confocal microscopy. They will investigate how mechanical properties of tissues impact dendritic cell movement and...
- This $335,000 Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), aims to investigate the mechanisms by which the nuclear protein lamins regulate genome organization and gene expression during development. The research, conducted by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, will utilize mouse embryonic stem cells to study how lamins differentially regulate distinct chromatin domains and...
- This Project Grant award of $149,264 from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders (CFDA 93.853) will support research investigating the contributions and impact of neutrophil activity in a comorbid model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID). The research aims to examine the mechanisms by which neutrophils contribute to worsened...
- This federal Project Grant award of $440,000.00 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), supports research at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research on the mechanisms of lipid droplet protein targeting. The goal is to investigate how proteins accumulate on lipid droplets, which are essential organelles for lipid storage and metabolism, and how this process relates to common human...
- This Project Grant award, valued at $452,250 and funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), aims to deepen the understanding of how nuclear speckles, membrane-less organelles, regulate protein quality control mechanisms and proteostasis. The research project, to be conducted by the University of Pittsburgh over the period of June 1, 2025 to April 30, 2030, will develop innovative tools to dissect...
- This $127,866 Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) supports research to investigate the mobilization of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) from the bone marrow microenvironment in response to inflammation. The primary objective is to use a 3D human bone marrow microphysiological system (BM MPS) to study how extracellular vesicles derived from inflamed cells...
- This $1,002,148 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), under the Extramural Research Programs in the Neurosciences and Neurological Disorders (CFDA 93.853) program, supports research on the role of autophagy, a cellular process for clearing damaged organelles and inclusions, in neurodegeneration. The research aims to determine how levels of the lipid phosphatidylinositol 3-phosphate (PI(3)P) regulate autophagy in neurons, including...
- This $101,396 Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) on March 10, 2026 under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research (CFDA 93.855) program supports research to understand how hepatocytes and skeletal myocytes influence adaptive immune responses to mRNA-encoded proteins. The principal investigator will engineer mRNA formulations with regulated expression in these cell types to enhance antigen-specific immunity while reducing off-target...
- This $440,000 Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), supports a research program to investigate the ubiquitin and autophagy pathways, which are essential cellular processes involved in proteostasis or protein homeostasis. The research team at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research aims to uncover novel regulatory mechanisms within the ubiquitin system and enhance...
- This Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), provides $388,000.00 to Northeastern University to develop and validate a new class of engineered macrophages capable of both tracking and modulating inflammation in vivo. The key products and services to be delivered under this 5-year project include: Equipping macrophages with multi-modal imaging markers detectable across...
IMPACT OF NUCLEAR ENVELOPE PROTEIN DEGRADATION ON NEUTROPHIL LIPID CONTENT AND MIGRATION - PROJECT SUMMARY & ABSTRACT NEUTROPHILS ARE THE FRONT-LINE DEFENDERS IN INNATE IMMUNITY AND ARE THE MOST ABUNDANT CIRCULATING IMMUNE CELLS IN THE HUMAN BODY. UNFORTUNATELY, NEUTROPHILS ARE ALSO MAJOR PLAYERS IN PERPETUATING AUTOINFLAMMATORY CONDITIONS. NEUTROPHILS POSSESS REMARKABLE NUCLEAR DEFORMABILITY, A NECESSARY REQUISITE FOR THEIR MIGRATION FROM BLOOD VESSELS THROUGH MICROMETER SIZED INTERCELLULAR SPACES TOWARDS SITES OF INFLAMMATION. THE OVERARCHING GOAL OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO DESIGN NEW APPROACHES TO CONTROL NEUTROPHIL MIGRATION BY MANIPULATING NUCLEAR DEFORMABILITY. PRELIMINARY WORK HAS SHOWN 69 DIFFERENTIALLY REGULATED NUCLEAR ENVELOPE GENES ASSOCIATED WITH NEUTROPHIL DIFFERENTIATION. MANY OF THESE ARE ASSOCIATED WITH THE NUCLEAR LAMINA AND LIPID HOMEOSTASIS PROTEINS. THIS PROPOSAL AIMS TO USE A NANOBODY-BASED PROTEIN DEGRADATION SYSTEM DEVELOPED BY THE DASSAMA LAB, CALLED NANOBRIDGE, TO SELECTIVELY DEGRADE THESE DIFFERENTIALLY PRODUCED PROTEINS. IT PROPOSES TO USE A COMBINATION OF MICROSCOPY AND LIPIDOMICS TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF TARGET DEGRADATION ON NUCLEAR LIPID COMPOSITION AND HOW LIPID COMPOSITION INFLUENCES NEUTROPHIL NUCLEAR DEFORMABILITY. NOVEL ASPECTS OF THIS PROPOSAL INCLUDE 1) DEVELOPMENT OF A SYSTEM FOR THE TARGETED DEGRADATION OF NUCLEAR ENVELOPE PROTEINS, 2) ASSESSMENT OF LIPID CONTENT IN THE NEUTROPHIL NUCLEUS FOLLOWING TARGETED DEGRADATION OF UPREGULATED LIPID HOMEOSTASIS PROTEINS, 3) DETERMINATION OF NEUTROPHIL MORPHOLOGY AND MIGRATION FOLLOWING TARGETED DEGRADATION OF UNDERSTUDIED NUCLEAR ENVELOPE PROTEINS AND 4) DEVELOPMENT OF A SYSTEM TO MODULATE NEUTROPHIL MIGRATION VIA MANIPULATION OF ITS NUCLEAR DEFORMABILITY BY TARGETED PROTEIN DEGRADATION. THE PROJECT GOALS WILL ALLOW ME TO DEVELOP A WELL-ROUNDED SKILLSET IN CELL BIOLOGY AND TARGETED PROTEIN DEGRADATION. I WILL FURTHER HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO GAIN EXPERIENCE IN LIPIDOMICS TECHNOLOGY. THESE SKILLS WILL COMBINE WITH MY PRE-EXISTING EXPERIENCE IN NATURAL PRODUCT BIOSYNTHESIS FROM MY PHD WORK TO GIVE ME A WELL- ROUNDED BACKGROUND THAT WILL FACILITATE MY INDEPENDENT RESEARCH CAREER.
Mod # | Description | ReasonForModification | Federal Obligation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not listed | $75.5k | 8/25/25 |