Project Grant R01AI192412

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded The Regents of the University of Colorado, doing business as University of Colorado-Denver, $771,983 on September 1, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to investigate gastrointestinal tissue-adapted eosinophils in health and disease.

The project, titled "Gastrointestinal Tissue-Adapted Eosinophils in Health and Disease," uses targeted high-dimensional flow cytometry, unsupervised clustering, and in vivo tracing to characterize receptor signatures of intestine-adapted eosinophils across healthy and inflammatory states. The research identifies conserved features that foreshadow T cell modulatory functions and explores how intestine-adapted eosinophils contribute to immune homeostasis versus pathologic infiltration in food allergies, eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders, eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis, and inflammatory bowel disease. The work employs novel mouse models to disrupt intestinal eosinophil adaptations and reveal distinct developmental trajectories in healthy versus inflamed tissue, including the role of inhibitory C-type lectins in autocrine regulation.

Performance occurs in Aurora, Colorado, over a five-year period from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2031. The award is classified as a Project Grant, a standard assistance type under the NIAID program supporting biomedical research in infectious and allergic diseases at academic and nonprofit institutions.