Federal Grant Award Summary

The University of Maryland Baltimore County received a $246,070 Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), effective June 11, 2026, through May 31, 2028. The award funds research to understand the mechanistic differences in the activation and deactivation of two first-line antiretroviral drugs—tenofovir (TFV) and emtricitabine (FTC)—in colonic tissues. The research addresses high variability in patient responses to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medications, which is critical for HIV prevention strategies, particularly in high-transmission sites such as rectal tissue.

The primary deliverables include development and application of mass spectrometry imaging-based enzyme histochemistry techniques to characterize phosphorylation and dephosphorylation pathways of TFV and FTC metabolites in colonic tissue samples. The research will identify specific kinases and nucleotidases responsible for drug activation and deactivation at putative HIV infection sites, thereby generating scientific knowledge to explain observed variability in drug responses and inform optimized PrEP treatment protocols. This biomedical research directly supports NIAID's mission to establish and expand investigator-initiated research addressing infectious diseases and related therapeutic mechanisms.