Federal Grant Award Summary

Mayo Clinic received a $795,316 Project Grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), effective July 14, 2026 through June 30, 2031. The grant funds research to develop and characterize an improved induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) reprogramming system using a modified measles virus vector. The research deliverables include identification of innate immune response activation differences during measles virus vector-mediated reprogramming, analysis of how innate immunity control affects reprogramming efficiency, and characterization of exogenous reprogramming factor expression roles in the reprogramming process. This work aims to produce a more efficient, non-integrating iPSC generation platform capable of generating genomic modification-free iPSCs from human fibroblasts for future clinical translation in treating degenerative diseases.

The research capitalizes on Mayo Clinic's novel single-cycle measles virus vector technology that expresses four reprogramming factors (OCT4, KLF4, SOX2, and c-MYC) in one genome, demonstrating equivalent or superior performance compared to existing Sendai virus vectors. By elucidating the underlying mechanisms of iPSC reprogramming through this innovative vector platform, the grant supports translational biomedical research addressing a critical bottleneck in stem cell therapeutics—the current 1–3 percent reprogramming efficiency of existing methods—thereby advancing scientific knowledge relevant to NIAID's mission in infectious disease and immunologic research.