Federal Project Grant Award Summary

Florida Institute of Technology Inc. received a $439,974 Project Grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) under the Environmental Health program (CFDA 93.113), awarded June 15, 2026, with a completion date of May 31, 2029. The research project, "Identifying the Genetic Determinants of Insecticide Response Variation to Advance Human Risk Assessment," delivers integrated quantitative genetics and human cell culture research to identify genetic and molecular pathways influencing human and organism responses to insecticide exposures, both individually and in combination. The research addresses the growing public health concern that pyrethroid resistance alleles may modulate responses to chlorfenapyr and other insecticides through gene-by-treatment interactions, with implications for chemical risk assessment in genetically diverse human populations.

The deliverables encompass three interconnected research aims: mapping quantitative trait loci influencing insecticide responses using Caenorhabditis elegans wild strains and recombinant inbred lines; identifying specific causal genes and variants through experimental crosses and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing; and profiling transcriptomic responses in edited C. elegans strains and human HEK293 and HepG2 cell cultures to identify conserved molecular pathways associated with combined insecticide exposure. These research outputs will directly inform human health risk assessment frameworks for insecticide combination treatments used in vector-borne disease control.