Federal Grant Award Summary

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center received a $473,491 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 3, 2026, through May 31, 2028. The project will develop and test logic-gated chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) technologies designed to selectively eliminate cells harboring latent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reservoirs in antiretroviral therapy (ART)-treated patients. The research will employ phenotypic targeting rather than viral antigen detection, utilizing CAR molecules programmed with "AND" and "NOT" logic gates to identify and eliminate CD4 T cells co-expressing specific surface markers such as programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) and very late antigen-4 (VLA-4) while sparing uninfected immune effector cells.

This virus-agnostic approach aims to reduce the latent HIV reservoir to levels manageable by antiviral immune responses, potentially enabling drug-free HIV remission without requiring viral reactivation strategies. The work is performed at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and advances the scientific knowledge base for infectious disease treatment through investigator-initiated biomedical research supported under NIAID's competitive grant program.