Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded the University of California, Davis a $765,496 Project Grant under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) effective August 1, 2026, with a completion date of July 31, 2030. This award funds the development and testing of Recombinant Enhanced Antiviral Restrictors (REAVRs)—novel synthetic proteins that combine virus-sensing domains with effector domains from different antiviral proteins to create broadly-acting antiviral agents capable of inhibiting diverse viruses, particularly arboviruses transmitted by vectors such as mosquitoes. The research addresses the urgent public health need to control emerging and re-emerging zoonotic viral infections for which current vector-borne transmission control strategies are insufficient.

The project delivers research products through three primary objectives: (1) generation and optimization of second-generation REAVR proteins and evaluation of their antiviral activity against a broad panel of viruses using reporter assays and cell culture-based models; (2) identification and characterization of arbovirus-induced promoters in mosquitoes using RNA-sequencing strategies; and (3) generation of REAVR-expressing mosquitoes and testing of their antiviral efficacy against arbovirus infections. These research outputs advance the development of a modular, broadly antiviral protein platform that, upon successful establishment and validation, can be applied to engineered organisms serving as vectors for viral disease control.