This Project Grant award in the amount of $1,500,314 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) is funding research to develop a hydrogel-based lymphoid organoid for generating antigen-specific germinal center B cells and long-lived plasma cells. The central objectives are to: 1) bioengineer a PEG-4MAL-based lymphoid organoid with human B, T, and stromal cells to recapitulate the kinetics of...
This $586,250 Project Grant award was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855). The funding supports research to investigate how distinct age-associated B cell subsets can protect the aged population from influenza. The primary focus is on understanding the potential of "age-associated B cells" (ABC) to respond to influenza infection and generate antibody-secreting cells, B...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) in the amount of $418,000.00 is aimed at elucidating the role of B cells and antibodies in the pathophysiology of aging and associated neurodegeneration. The key objectives are to analyze the immunoglobulin repertoire and phenotype of B cells present in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) versus peripheral blood in young and elderly individuals. This work will determine the extent to which peripheral B...
This federal Project Grant award of $107,948 was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855). The award supports research aimed at engineering B cells to secrete broadly neutralizing antibodies that could help control HIV in people living with the virus. The key objectives are to: 1) design synthetic protein signaling molecules to enhance B cell function, 2) test the ability of these...
This $513,957 Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) aims to understand the role of lymphatic endothelial cell NF-kB signaling in the maintenance of adult lymph nodes. The two-year study, running from September 2024 to August 2026, will be conducted by the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research. Key research activities include single-cell RNA sequencing analysis of lymph node stromal cells, as well as the use of inducible transgenic mouse...
This federal Project Grant award for $351,750 was provided by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) under the Aging Research program (CFDA 93.866) to Yale University. The award will fund a 5-year research project to investigate the role of the protein NLRX1 in regulating immune system changes associated with aging. The primary goal is to elucidate the mechanisms by which decreases in NLRX1 levels contribute to age-related alterations in T cell function, including memory T cell expansion, reduced...
This $693,465 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), supports a research project to map the development of T cell immunity in lymph nodes from infancy to adulthood. The key objectives are to: 1) Determine how the spatial organization of T cells changes in the lymph node throughout childhood; 2) Examine how the lymph node shapes the CD8+ T cell response to infection in...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) provides $419,170 to the University of Maryland, College Park to study the biophysical properties of lymph nodes and how they change with aging. The researchers will use cutting-edge techniques like multiple particle tracking and Brillouin microscopy to measure the elastic, viscous, and stiffness properties of lymph nodes, and correlate these to the composition of the extracellular matrix. This work aims...
This $130,368 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), supports research aimed at defining how B cell receptor (BCR) binding site copy number at the cell surface is regulated to optimize antigen recognition and affinity-driven antibody selection. The primary objectives are to: 1) Determine the molecular mechanisms that underlie the developmental enhancement of BCR...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), aims to investigate factors that enhance the protective capacity of antibodies through Fc-mediated immune responses. The $416,276 award to the University of Georgia Research Foundation will fund research to quantify how factors like epitope location, antibody glycosylation, and oligomerization affect the potency of...
This federal Project Grant award of $2,980,142 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) aims to develop an ex vivo "aged B cell follicle" organoid technology. The goal is to create a tissue-engineered model of aged lymphoid tissues that can induce early germinal center (GC) programming of aged B cells from mice and humans. This will enable the study of plasma cell fate and regulation of the B cell epigenome, as well as the identification of checkpoint targets to boost the GC response in aged B cells. The award recipient, Georgia Tech Research Corp, will leverage its expertise in materials science, engineering, and biomedical research to establish the lymphoid microenvironment of aged lymph nodes and engineer the hydrogel-based "aged" immune organoid. The project aims to advance the understanding of humoral immunity in aging and develop innovative solutions to improve vaccine and infection responses in older individuals.