Federal Project Grant Award Summary

Cornell University's Office of Sponsored Programs received a $743,943 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 May 5, 2026, through April 30, 2031. This research initiative focuses on advancing the understanding and engineering of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as potential therapeutic compounds to combat opportunistic bacterial infections. The project will deliver scientific research outputs including functional genetic analyses, evolutionary assessments, and phenotypic characterization of three AMP classes to determine their specificity and synergistic interactions against clinically relevant gram-negative pathogens, leveraging the Drosophila melanogaster model system to establish generalizable principles of AMP function.

The research will generate several key deliverables: population genetic assessments of AMPs within Drosophila populations to test for adaptive maintenance of functionally relevant polymorphisms; molecular evolutionary analyses across the Drosophilid phylogenetic tree to identify adaptive diversification patterns; genotype-phenotype association mapping to reveal crucial functional residues and peptide domains; and bacterial genetic screening to identify molecular targets of specific AMPs including diptericin and attacin. These research outputs are intended to contribute broadly to understanding AMP-pathogen coevolution and to inform the engineering of AMPs as antimicrobial therapeutics with enhanced specificity and clinical efficacy.