Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded a Project Grant of $388,750 to The Washington University in St. Louis under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) effective May 15, 2026, with a completion date of April 30, 2031. This grant supports investigator-initiated biomedical research aimed at identifying novel therapeutic strategies to improve outcomes in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). The research focuses on the very-low-density lipoprotein receptor (VLDLR) as a therapeutic target to simultaneously prevent graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and reduce leukemia relapse—two major clinical barriers to successful transplantation outcomes.

The project deliverables include mechanistic research and preclinical testing using mouse models of allo-HCT to validate the hypothesis that pharmacologic inhibition of VLDLR can separate the beneficial graft-versus-leukemia effect from the deleterious GVHD response. The research methodology incorporates genome-wide CRISPR/Cas9 screening and gene set enrichment analysis to define cellular mechanisms underlying VLDLR's role in modulating T-cell-mediated immune responses. This work addresses a significant unmet clinical need, as current strategies to prevent GVHD often inadvertently reduce beneficial anti-leukemia effects, resulting in increased mortality rates from disease relapse over the past four decades.