Federal Grant Award Summary

Brigham and Women's Hospital Inc., through its Department of Faulkner Pathology in Boston, Massachusetts, received a $893,459 Project Grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855). The award, effective April 9, 2026, and extending through March 31, 2031, funds research investigating lipid antigens presented by CD1 molecules to human T cells. The project employs advanced lipidomics platform technology to comprehensively detect and analyze lipids bound to CD1A, CD1B, CD1C, and CD1D antigen-presenting molecules, with the objective of identifying chemical patterns in natural lipids that activate or inhibit T cell responses.

The research deliverables include identification of inhibitory lipid ligands across all CD1 subtypes, structural characterization of compounds that block T cell activation, and development of optimized anti-inflammatory therapeutic blockers. Final outputs will be validated through ex vivo testing using polyclonal human T cells and CD1 tetramers, with particular emphasis on CD1A and CD1C inhibitors. The non-polymorphic nature of CD1 proteins ensures that findings will have broad applicability across human populations, potentially enabling the development of therapies that specifically modulate human T cell responses without requiring patient-specific customization.