Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded a Project Grant of $435,379 under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) to Michigan State University, in partnership with Henry Ford Health, effective February 3, 2026, through January 31, 2028. The grant funds development of a machine learning-based predictive model designed to computationally identify effective bacteriophages and phage resistance-associated molecular features for treating antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, specifically targeting E. coli strains. This research addresses the critical clinical challenge of selecting appropriate phage therapeutics from large biobanks by automating and accelerating the identification process using bacterial and phage genome sequences, thereby reducing the time and cost currently associated with manual screening approaches.

The project deliverables include the creation of a predictive computational tool capable of matching bacterial pathogens with effective phage candidates and establishing a gold-standard dataset to support phage therapy advancement. Led by Principal Investigators Ravi and Waters, the research team will leverage expertise across bacterial pathogenesis, phage biology, antimicrobial resistance, microbial genomics, and computational biology to develop methodologies that can be applied to any given bacterial pathogen genome. The initiative represents a translational research effort to accelerate the clinical adoption of phage therapy as an alternative treatment modality for antibiotic-resistant infections.