This $532,970 Project Grant award, provided by the National Cancer Institute under the Cancer Treatment Research federal grant program (CFDA 93.395), supports research to define the key cell-intrinsic features and cell interactions of anti-tumor CD4 T cells that promote anti-tumor immunity and enhance responses to PD-1 targeted immunotherapy. The 5-year study, beginning April 1, 2025, will use an autochthonous immunogenic mouse model of liver cancer to: 1) investigate the transcriptional...
This federal Project Grant award, funded by the National Cancer Institute (CFDA 93.396 - Cancer Biology Research), aims to investigate the pathogenesis of immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-induced myocarditis, a potentially fatal side effect of ICI cancer therapies. The $547,945 award, effective January 1, 2025, will support researchers at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD to: Examine how factors like prior cardiac injury, age, and sex influence the risk of ICI-myocarditis by...
This federal Project Grant award, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), supports research to uncover the role of miR-29a in regulating the epigenetic profile and differentiation of exhausted CD8 T cells. The $1,684,130 award aims to elucidate how miR-29a targets the TET2 enzyme to alter DNA methylation, and how this miR-29a-TET2 axis synergizes with checkpoint inhibitor therapy to...
The federal Project Grant award R01AI182098 was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855). The $858,186 award to The General Hospital Corporation (doing business as Massachusetts General Hospital) aims to decode T cell clonotypes, biology, and predictive biomarkers associated with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-induced myocarditis. The research seeks to identify novel cardiac...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $534,000.00 in funding to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute to conduct research on CD4+ T cell differentiation. The research aims to investigate how the location of antigen and the density and half-life of peptide:MHCII complexes on antigen-presenting cells can influence the expansion...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $857,346 in funding to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (also known as the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance) to investigate how activating and inhibitory signals in the form of cytokines and metabolites present in healthy human tissues regulate the effector function of CD8 T cells. The research aims to define...
This Project Grant award, provided by the National Cancer Institute under the Cancer Biology Research (CFDA 93.396) program, supports research to determine whether targeting the PSGL-1 immune checkpoint can promote the development and maintenance of CD8+ T cells essential for anti-tumor responses to PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade therapy. The $674,996 award, effective August 7, 2024 through July 31, 2029, will enable the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute to investigate the role...
This $192,888 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) will support a research study to evaluate the generation, differentiation, breadth, and persistence of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses in patients with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL) and Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). The goal is to provide in-depth knowledge on how antigen-specific T cell responses...
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), awarded a $737,502 Project Grant to The Washington University in St. Louis. The 5-year grant, effective May 1, 2025, will support research to investigate the role of the WDFY4 protein in the activation and development of regulatory T cells (Tregs), which are essential for maintaining immune tolerance. The research aims to: 1) determine the impact of WDFY4...
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded a $276,450 Project Grant (CFDA 93.855 - Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research) to The Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA to study the role of PPARD-controlled CIITA/MHCII expression in regulating regulatory T cell (Treg) function and its impact on tumor immunity. The key objectives are to: 1) Dissect the molecular mechanisms of how MHCII expression in Tregs is regulated by the PPARD/CIITA axis and how...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), will support research to investigate the mechanisms of CD4 T cell autoreactivity following treatment with checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapies. The total funding for this grant is $906,930, awarded over a period from July 2, 2024 to May 31, 2026.
The research will focus on two key objectives: 1) Characterizing the phenotype and antigen-specificity of CD4+ T cells involved in the development of autoimmune adverse events in patients treated with PD-1 inhibitors, and 2) Examining the antigen-specificity and CD4+ T cell responses in patients with lung cancer who develop pneumonitis or other immune-related adverse events following checkpoint blockade. This work aims to define the underlying biology of these autoimmune toxicities and establish an approach for analyzing antigen-specific autoreactive CD4+ T cells to help predict and manage adverse events associated with checkpoint inhibitor therapies.