This Project Grant award, provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), supports research focused on understanding the potential for broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) to prevent HIV-1 transmission. The $3,454,926 award, spanning from July 2024 to May 2029, will be used by the awardee, The Children's Hospital Corporation (doing business as Boston Children's Hospital), to refine the...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $867,563 to Rockefeller University to develop synergistic nanobodies for pandemic preparedness against betacoronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2. The key objectives are to identify, isolate, and characterize a diverse repertoire of highly neutralizing nanobodies against...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (CFDA 93.855 - Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research) is focused on the development of broadly neutralizing nanobodies for advancing AIDS therapy. The $1,501,625 award aims to identify and engineer nanobodies capable of recognizing diverse regions of the HIV envelope protein, with the primary goal of improving treatment effectiveness and simplifying therapeutic protocols. Key objectives include: 1)...
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded a $668,569 Project Grant under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to The Schepens Eye Research Institute, Inc. in Boston, MA. The grant will fund research to characterize and optimize a novel genetic vaccine platform called PARVAX, with the goal of increasing its clinical acceptance and application for pandemic preparedness. Key objectives include investigating the mechanism behind the...
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), provides $808,216 to Boston Children's Hospital to conduct comprehensive studies on the molecular mechanisms of tetanus neurotoxin pathogenesis. The research aims to identify host factors that mediate the trafficking of tetanus neurotoxin into the spinal cord, a century-old mystery in understanding tetanus etiology. The...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $1,000,000 in funding to Partillion Bioscience Corp to develop advanced workflows utilizing their "nanovial" hydrogel microparticle technology. The goal is to enable ultra high-throughput screening and functional assessment of single B cells and antibody-secreting cells to improve antibody discovery...
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), provides $2,178,000 to develop a "tunable nanophage platform" for rapid vaccine development against emerging infectious disease threats, including SARS-CoV-2 variants and pre-emergent SARS-like coronaviruses. The key products and services to be delivered include: 1) Engineering "second generation" nanophages...
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded a $258,990 Project Grant (CFDA 93.855 - Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research) to The Children's Hospital Corporation, doing business as Boston Children's Hospital, with a performance period from November 22, 2024 to October 31, 2026. The grant will support research to examine the role of the Candida albicans TOR1 kinase, specifically its N-terminal heat repeats domain, in enabling this fungal pathogen to withstand...
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), provides $154,568.00 to support research to uncover the molecular mechanisms by which the innate immune effector TRIM56 restricts a broad range of viruses, with a focus on HIV-1. The research aims to (1) investigate how TRIM56 directly or indirectly recognizes viral RNA, and (2) determine the ubiquitination targets of TRIM56...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) provides $868,776 to The Children's Hospital Corporation (doing business as Boston Children's Hospital) to characterize a novel post-transcriptional regulator in the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The research aims to identify the direct regulatory targets of the PHAF protein under various growth...
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), provides $2,660,212 in funding to The Children's Hospital Corporation (doing business as Boston Children's Hospital) for research on "Armed Nanobodies as Anti-Infectives and Anti-Tumor Agents."
The key products and services to be delivered under this award include:
Developing a nanobody that recognizes immunoglobulin light chains and can be conjugated to molecules that target virus-infected or cancerous cells, with the goal of creating an effective therapeutic approach. This includes evaluating the relative contributions of antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) and complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) to the mechanism of action.
Exploring the use of this nanobody technology in combination with agents targeting other pathogens such as Ebola virus, SARS-CoV-2, and HIV, to potentially enable post-exposure prophylaxis in the absence of pre-existing immunity.
Enhancing the activity of the nanobody fusions through the generation of drug adducts using cytotoxic compounds like maytansinoids, and evaluating their anti-tumor efficacy in mouse models.
The award has an initial period of performance from July 19, 2024 to May 31, 2029.