Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded Yale University a Project Grant of $194,904 on April 9, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to support a five-year research initiative through March 31, 2031. The award funds Dr. Eric I. Elliott's research program focused on understanding carnitine metabolism reprogramming in sepsis, a life-threatening condition affecting 50 million individuals globally with mortality rates between 20-40%. The research employs human samples and novel SLC22A5 (high-affinity L-carnitine transporter) conditional knockout mouse models to investigate tissue-specific roles of carnitine metabolism, with objectives including determining how carnitine metabolic reprogramming impacts patient survival, assessing the therapeutic potential of cell-specific SLC22A5-targeting interventions, and identifying additional molecular pathways that could improve sepsis treatment outcomes.

The grant supports a structured research training program designed to prepare Dr. Elliott, a physician-scientist, for an independent research career in infectious disease and metabolic immunology. Beyond immediate sepsis applications, the research has translational relevance to other inflammatory diseases, as metabolomic and genome-wide association studies implicate L-carnitine, SLC22A5, and related pathways in multiple inflammatory conditions. The work is conducted at Yale University's New Haven, Connecticut location and contributes to NIAID's broader mission of advancing biomedical research addressing infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases.