This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under CFDA 93.855 - Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research, provides $109,671.00 to the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMass Medical) to characterize mechanisms by which HIV-infected macrophages resist natural killer (NK) cell-mediated killing. The research aims to define macrophage-specific mechanisms that increase resistance to NK cell-mediated killing, focusing on: 1)...
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), supports research to characterize HIV reservoirs in macrophages and investigate mechanisms by which these cells resist antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC). The $243,713 award to the University of Massachusetts Medical School aims to: 1) determine how HIV accessory proteins Nef and Vpu differentially regulate NK cell...
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 to investigate the dynamics and evolution of HIV Gag and GagPol processing. The $752,745 award aims to use molecular dynamics simulations, single-molecule FRET imaging, and cryo-electron tomography to probe the structure and dynamics of Gag and GagPol that enable ordered processing by the viral...
This federal 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), aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying T cell dysfunction and HIV persistence in persons with HIV (PWH). The $500,000 award, effective from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2029, will support research conducted by The General Hospital Corporation (Massachusetts General Hospital) to identify and...
This Project Grant award of $1,454,386.00 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), supports fundamental research to better understand the epigenetic regulation of the HIV-1 viral RNA cap. The research aims to define the structural basis of HIV cap hypermethylation and its linkage to modulating host innate immune signaling, with the goal of developing new treatments to neutralize deleterious...
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 $318,085 to support research on the role of antibodies in controlling virus infections through Fc-dependent mechanisms such as antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP), and complement-dependent cytolysis (CDC). The research aims to elucidate 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 $220,000 to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center to conduct research on natural killer (NK) cell memory responses to HIV. The key objectives are to use a novel lineage tracing method called ASAP-seq to identify and characterize long-lived, HIV-specific NK memory cell clones in a unique longitudinal cohort of...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under CFDA Program 93.855 Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research, is focused on understanding the mechanisms by which the human immune system naturally restricts a specific subset of HIV known as X4-tropic virus. The $197,366 award, effective from March 1, 2025 to February 28, 2030, will support research at Washington University to (1) characterize the molecular mechanisms driving restriction of...
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 $220,224 to the University of Chicago to computationally investigate key morphological transitions in the HIV-1 life cycle. The research aims to gain a deeper mechanistic understanding of HIV assembly, maturation, and uncoating processes, with a focus on the roles of viral RNA, host cell factors, and...
This federal Project Grant award of $2,505,639 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) supports research to understand the molecular interactions between lentivirus capsids and the nuclear pore complex protein NUP358. The project aims to investigate how the binding of lentiviral capsids, including HIV-1 and HIV-2, to the RBD4-CHD didomain of NUP358 impacts viral nuclear import and replication....
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 $848,839 to the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMass Medical) to investigate new mechanisms by which HIV accessory proteins mediate control of natural killer (NK) cell function. The key objectives are to identify novel HIV-regulated NK cell ligands, define how the HIV Vif protein regulates MHC-I and NK cell activation, and characterize the effects of NK cell pressure on the evolution of HIV accessory protein sequences in vivo using humanized mouse models. This research aims to provide mechanistic insights into viral immune evasion mechanisms affecting NK cell function, which may aid the development of NK cell-based therapies for HIV cure strategies. The award period runs from August 1, 2025 to July 31, 2030.