Project Grant R01AI200132

Federal Grant Award Summary

Brigham & Women's Hospital Inc. received a $855,342 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), effective June 12, 2026, with a completion date of May 31, 2031. The award supports investigator-initiated biomedical research examining the pathogenic roles of follicular helper T (Tfh) cells in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a prototypical autoimmune disease affecting approximately 500,000 Americans. The research will elucidate how SLE disease settings reprogram Tfh cell differentiation and function to promote disease-causing autoantibodies and tissue injury.

The funded research delivers scientific knowledge and methodological advances through three primary study objectives: (1) assessing how the IGF1R/IGFBP4 axis controls Tfh differentiation and SLE progression in murine lupus models; (2) determining how Tfh cells program pathogenic B cells to induce SLE disease; and (3) evaluating how lymphoid tissue Tfh differentiation is altered in human SLE disease. The project employs innovative in vivo strategies to identify, fate-map, and perturb Tfh cell differentiation, combined with human SLE patient lymph node sampling, to comprehensively assess how altered Tfh differentiation contributes to SLE progression. The expected outcome is to establish the fundamental role of Tfh cells in SLE pathogenesis and identify precise mechanisms amenable to therapeutic intervention.