Federal Project Grant Summary

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) awarded a $1.56 million Project Grant to The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837) on June 17, 2026, with completion targeted for February 29, 2028. The funded research project, titled "The Multiciliation Cycle: A Variant Cell Cycle Coordinating Centriole Biogenesis and Ciliogenesis," investigates fundamental cellular mechanisms underlying the development of multiciliated cells that line mammalian airways and protect lungs from pathogens and particulates.

The grant supports basic science research examining how differentiating multiciliated cells deploy a novel cell cycle variant—termed the "multiciliation cycle"—to generate hundreds of centrioles and coordinated cilia, departing from the standard two-centriole-per-cell-cycle pattern observed in typical cells. The research focuses on characterizing how cell cycle regulators, including cyclin-dependent kinases and the transcriptional regulator E2F7, coordinate centriole biogenesis and ciliogenesis. This work has direct relevance to understanding and potentially treating Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD), a lung disease caused by defects in multiciliation, and extends to multiciliated cells in other tissues such as the brain's ependymal cells. Research will be conducted at UCSF's San Francisco, California facility.