Project Grant R21AI196275

Grant Award Summary

Duke University's Office of Research Administration received a $444,125 Project Grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), effective April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2028. This award funds research designed to accelerate immune reconstitution following cultured thymus tissue implantation (CTTI), also referred to as thymus transplantation. The research team will identify and manipulate regulatory pathways that control thymus growth and maturation using murine models, employing two distinct intervention approaches: ex vivo gene therapy utilizing adeno-associated virus vectors and pharmaceutical interventions. The project will evaluate the impacts of these manipulations on implanted thymus growth, the speed of immune reconstitution, and the quality of T cell recovery following CTTI.

The research addresses a critical clinical need to prevent infection-related mortality occurring during the immune reconstitution period following CTTI, thereby enabling broader application of this tolerance-inducing transplantation method. Building on the research team's prior success in human CTTI/heart co-transplantation and established expertise in thymus biology and gene therapy, the deliverables from this grant include preclinical data demonstrating enhanced T cell reconstitution rates and thymus functionality. The translatable findings from this work have potential applicability beyond transplantation, including accelerating T cell recovery following cancer treatment.