Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded a $647,181 Project Grant to the University of California, Merced for research titled "Elucidating Factors Involved in Inflammasome Regulation." The award, effective February 1, 2026, through January 31, 2031, supports fundamental research investigating the regulatory mechanisms controlling inflammasome assembly and activity in innate immune cells. The project focuses on understanding how inflammasomes—large multiprotein complexes that trigger inflammatory responses to pathogenic threats—are formed and regulated, with particular emphasis on the adaptor protein ASC and its interaction with cytosolic pattern recognition receptors. This research is designed to elucidate atomic-level structural and biophysical mechanisms underlying inflammasome formation, providing scientific knowledge essential for developing targeted anti-inflammatory therapies for autoimmune disorders, autoinflammatory diseases, atherosclerosis, and cancer.

UC Merced will conduct this research under the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), which supports biomedical research advancing scientific understanding of infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. The research program emphasizes competitive merit-based selection and will utilize UC Merced's established research capabilities in immunology and structural biology to advance knowledge of disease mechanisms and inform therapeutic development strategies.