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 $616,588 to The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to conduct research on the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, which is the leading cause of fungal meningitis globally. The research aims to develop a high-precision phenotypic map of the pathogen's genes in order to better understand...
This federal Project Grant award, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), is focused on exploring the genetic basis of two pathogenesis-relevant traits in the Cryptococcus fungal genus: thermotolerance and azole drug resistance. The $443,944 award, with a performance period from August 2024 to July 2029, will employ high-throughput genetic approaches to characterize genome-wide...
This federal Project Grant award for $773,053, provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), aims to advance the understanding of the cryptococcal cell wall composition and biosynthesis. The primary awardee, The Washington University, will conduct biochemical and genetic research to determine how the GGT2 glycosyltransferase affects the cryptococcal cell wall structure and integrity, as well...
The University of Southern California (USC) received a $623,986 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research (CFDA 93.855) program. The funding supports a research project to study the genetic and molecular mechanisms that enable fungi, specifically the opportunistic pathogen Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to persist and cause infections in mammalian hosts. Key objectives include: Identifying causal...
This $642,775 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), will fund research to accelerate the discovery of novel antifungal peptides using one-bead one-compound (OBOC) combinatorial technology. The University of California, Davis will conduct high-throughput screening of chemically synthesized peptide libraries to identify membrane-active antifungal peptides that can...
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 $170,000.00 in funding to Prokaryotics Incorporated for a 2-year period from February 1, 2025 to January 31, 2027. The funding supports research to develop novel antifungal therapeutics that target the glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) biosynthesis pathway in fungi. The key objectives are to conduct structural...
This $857,215 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 to investigate how the fungal pathogen Candida albicans adapts and causes disease in different host environments. The research aims to decipher how the fungal protein acetylation regulator GCN5 mediates niche-specific virulence of C. albicans in mouse models of oropharyngeal and invasive candidiasis. By...
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 explore the phenomenon of replicative aging in the fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans (CN) during co-infection with HIV in AIDS patients. The $232,073 award, effective from November 2024 to October 2026, will investigate the host-pathogen dynamics between CN, microglia (brain-resident macrophages), and HIV. 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 $402,860 to the University of Cincinnati to develop a molecular toolbox for the fungal pathogen Pneumocystis jirovecii. The primary goal is to establish a transformation system for this non-cultivable pathogen using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing and plasmid-mediated approaches. During the initial R61 phase, 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), will provide $474,620 to The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to comprehensively define the selective pressures on the HIV-1 capsid protein. The goal is to identify key capsid mutations that allow the virus to evade human restriction factors, as well as those mutations that are disallowed due to...
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 $2,797,623.00 in funding to The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to conduct research on understanding the significance of genetic variation and evolution in the human pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans. The research project, scheduled for completion by May 31, 2029, aims to decipher how the genetic background of this fungal pathogen impacts key traits such as gene essentiality, fitness in the mammalian host, and responses to diverse environmental conditions. The project leverages powerful CRISPR/Cas9 tools and experimental evolution techniques to address these fundamental questions, which have important implications for developing effective therapies and understanding drug resistance across genetic backgrounds.