Project Grant R01AI195886

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center $758,906 on July 22, 2026, to conduct research under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855).

The award funds the Syndrome of Undifferentiated Recurrent Fevers: Understanding Phenotypes (SURFS-UP) study, which seeks to define distinct proinflammatory transcriptional phenotypes across the immune landscape in patients with syndrome of undifferentiated recurrent fevers (SURF). Periodic recurrent fever syndromes result from dysregulated innate immune response causing spontaneous inflammation without identifiable triggers; many children and adults with these syndromes lack monogenic causes and are classified under SURF, which encompasses individuals with distinct phenotypic features, disparate disease courses, and variable treatment responses. The research will leverage an established cohort of SURF patients, single-cell genomics pipelines, home blood collection methods, transcriptional profiling, and base-editing techniques to discover shared transcriptional programs in peripheral blood immune cells that define SURF and functionally link these programs to genetic variants present in patients.

The project performance period runs through June 30, 2031, with work performed in Cincinnati, Ohio. Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is a nonprofit pediatric hospital and research center; the award is a Project Grant assistance type under the NIAID portfolio.