Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded $794,183 to the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope on April 8, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855). This five-year project, extending through March 31, 2031, supports investigator-initiated biomedical research into the role and regulation of methylarginine effector Tudor Domain-Containing Protein 3 (TDRD3) in T cell immunity. The research addresses fundamental gaps in understanding how T cells maintain immune homeostasis during adaptive immune responses while preventing aberrant activation that could trigger autoimmunity or excessive inflammation.

The project delivers basic science research investigating protein arginine methylation as a regulatory mechanism in T cell biology, with a focus on TDRD3 as a downstream effector of arginine methylation-mediated cellular processes. Research outputs include mechanistic studies characterizing TDRD3's function as a transcriptional coactivator for genes critical to T cell activation, including interleukin-2 (IL-2), and investigation of R-loops in T cell activation. Preliminary findings indicate that TDRD3 knockout in CD4+ T cells confers resistance to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by impairing T cell activation, proliferation, and survival, suggesting targeting specific methylarginine effectors may offer a more therapeutically precise strategy than broadly targeting protein arginine methyltransferases while minimizing adverse effects on normal tissues.