Federal Grant Award Summary

Brigham & Women's Hospital Inc. received a $823,143 Project Grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), effective February 6, 2026, with a completion date of January 31, 2031. The research project, "Elucidating Treg Defects in ALS," aims to identify disease-ameliorating therapies for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by investigating functional deficiencies in regulatory T cells (Tregs), a critical immune cell population that regulates inflammation and dampens immune activation.

The grant funds investigative research to determine why Tregs are functionally deficient in ALS patients and why they occur at lower frequency in this population. Using high-parameter analytical methods and specialized techniques for testing low-cell-number samples, the research will characterize distinct dysfunction mechanisms in two Treg subsets: memory Tregs (mTregs), which show low frequency and poor stability in early disease, and naïve/resting Tregs (nvTregs), which exhibit enhanced loss of function and decreased viability that worsen with disease progression. The ultimate goal is to identify specific molecules or cells responsible for Treg inactivation in ALS patients, findings that could inform the development of more effective therapeutic interventions, building upon preliminary clinical trial results demonstrating that Treg adoptive cell therapy can temporarily slow disease progression.