Federal Grant Award Summary

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded $463,601 to The Regents of the University of California, San Francisco under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855) on June 9, 2026, with a completion date of May 31, 2028. This Project Grant supports investigator-initiated biomedical research examining how Cytomegalovirus (CMV) pre-infection impairs immune responses critical for controlling Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection. The research addresses an important public health gap in understanding why viral infections contribute to heterogeneous outcomes following MTB exposure, particularly given the high prevalence of CMV co-infection in low- and middle-income countries where tuberculosis remains endemic.

The deliverables under this award include experimental findings from a murine co-infection model comparing CMV-preinfected and control mice following MTB infection, with analysis of survival outcomes, lung pathology, and immune characteristics. The project employs fluorescent reporter strains of both pathogens to enable cellular sorting and in situ imaging of infected and bystander cells, complemented by in vitro co-infection experiments in primary cells. These research outputs will elucidate the direct and indirect immunological mechanisms by which CMV remodels both innate and adaptive immune responses and the lung microenvironment, ultimately advancing understanding of host-pathogen interactions relevant to vaccine development and TB disease prevention strategies.