Federal Project Grant Award Summary

Brigham and Women's Hospital Inc., Department of Faulkner Pathology, received a $894,314 Project Grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837) for research focused on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations. The award, dated July 5, 2026, with completion targeted for April 30, 2030, supports an integrated research initiative combining multi-trait genetics, proteomics, and deep learning methodologies to identify biomarkers and therapeutic targets for COPD exacerbations.

The project delivers three primary research products: (1) development and validation of a multi-trait polygenic risk score integrating genetic information across multiple traits to predict exacerbation risk across large patient cohorts; (2) identification of genetically predicted blood proteins associated with frequent exacerbations in a novel cohort of individuals with severe COPD; and (3) application of deep learning models trained on COPD lung single-cell data to prioritize protein targets for therapeutic intervention in specific lung cell types. These integrated deliverables are designed to improve clinical risk prediction accuracy, elucidate biological pathways underlying COPD exacerbations, and support drug development efforts targeting exacerbation mechanisms.