Project Grant R01AI201438
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Duke University $1,659,470 on April 1, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to discover and optimize broadly protective merbecovirus neutralizing antibodies. The research aims to identify broadly neutralizing antibodies (BNAbs) and their epitopes against merbecovirus (MERB), a family of MERS-related betacoronaviruses with high zoonotic potential and considerable mortality. The project will...
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Duke University $783,701 on May 22, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to investigate the development and contribution of individual plasma B cells to broad HIV serum neutralization. Duke will conduct high-throughput antibody sequencing to recover antibody sequences from plasma cells in mice immunized with a novel regimen, produce selected antibodies from those sequences, and...
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Duke University $806,623 on May 29, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855, Project Grant R56AI194947) to elucidate the structural and kinetic basis of HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibody responses, focusing on transient states and intermediates in antibody-antigen interactions that govern affinity maturation and neutralization breadth. The funded research will employ structural and kinetic...
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Emory University $772,008 on July 1, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to identify spike protein correlates driving merbecovirus pathogenesis. The funded research examines how motifs in the S1/S2 loop of MERS-CoV and merbecovirus spike proteins affect infection and pathogenesis by modulating spike cleavage efficiency, spike processing on virions, and cellular entry routes (endosomal...
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Duke University $684,405 on July 22, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to develop mucosal immunotherapies targeting recurrent urinary tract infections and inflammatory bowel disease. The funded research advances immunomodulation via self-assembled peptides (ISAP), a platform using modular supramolecular polypeptide nanomaterials designed to elicit neutralizing antibody responses against...
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Duke University $2,342,550 on May 8, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to develop a combined T cell and B cell therapeutic countermeasure to achieve functional cure of HIV-1 infection. The research combines two immunological approaches: a CD8 T cell countermeasure using an integrase-deficient lentiviral vector delivering the viral GAG gene to control viremia, and a B cell countermeasure...
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Duke University $703,187 on August 6, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855, Project Grant R01AI201207) to advance understanding of antigenically complex hemagglutinin vaccine formulation requirements and mechanisms of protection in universal influenza vaccine development. The research addresses a core limitation of current influenza vaccines: they induce responses primarily against...
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded New York University $836,484 on May 19, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to develop vectored immunoprophylaxis using ACE2 receptor decoys to prevent and treat SARS-CoV-2 infection. The project will develop and test high-affinity ACE2 receptor decoys—composed of the extracellular domain of ACE2 fused to a truncated immunoglobulin heavy-chain Fc region—delivered via adeno-associated...
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill $756,988 on August 14, 2026, for research on antibody-based approaches to limit parainfluenza virus type 3 (PIV3) infection and disease in human lung models. The project develops and evaluates monoclonal antibodies (MABs) as therapeutic interventions against PIV3, a significant cause of croup, bronchopneumonia, and respiratory illness in infants, immunocompromised individuals, and...
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded the University of Maryland, Baltimore $896,045 on May 6, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) for development of broadly protective immunotherapeutic molecules derived from nurse shark nanobodies targeting pan-coronavirus spike sites of vulnerability. The project will interrogate VNAR nanobody repertoires derived from nurse sharks sequentially immunized with heterologous coronavirus...
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Duke University $756,936 on August 4, 2026, under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to develop broadly protective medical countermeasures against merbecovirus and sarbecovirus through nanoparticle immunogen design. The research aims to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies targeting conserved viral epitopes on the receptor binding domain and stem helix of coronavirus spike proteins. Preliminary studies demonstrated that nanoparticle-based receptor binding domain immunogens produced neutralizing antibodies and protected mice against multiple merbecovirus and sarbecovirus strains, and protected non-human primates against both virus subgenera. Specific Aim 1 will characterize the antibody clonality and immunogenetic features required for broad neutralization across both virus subgenera. Specific Aim 2 will optimize nanoparticle immunogens to increase neutralizing antibody breadth. The work addresses an identified gap: no known antibodies binding to the receptor binding domain have been identified that neutralize both merbecovirus and sarbecovirus strains simultaneously. The award runs from August 4, 2026, through July 31, 2031, with place of performance in Durham, North Carolina. Duke University's Office of Research Administration is the recipient organization.
Mod # | Description | ReasonForModification | Federal Obligation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not listed | $756.9k | 8/4/26 |