The U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) awarded a $506,000 Project Grant (CFDA 93.213 - Research and Training in Complementary and Integrative Health) to the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. The goal of this 2-year grant, awarded on September 13, 2024, is to develop orally available recombinant peptidoglycan hydrolase therapeutics that can promote intestinal barrier function and protect against enteric pathogens. The funded research will evaluate...
This federal Project Grant award of $637,000.00 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) under the Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.847) supports research to explore the production and bioactivity of novel bile acids produced by the gut microbiome. The primary awardee, Michigan State University, will investigate how these "microbially conjugated bile acids" (MCBAs) are generated by gut bacteria and...
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) awarded a $822,442 Project Grant under the Research and Training in Complementary and Integrative Health program (CFDA 93.213) to North Carolina State University. The grant will fund research to discover new terpene synthases and carotenoid-modifying enzymes within the human gut microbiome using a novel phage-based functional metagenomics approach. The project aims to characterize the chemical products of these enzymes and...
This federal Project Grant award for $647,979 from the National Institute on Aging (CFDA 93.866 - Aging Research) supports research to investigate how gut microbiota influence neurodegeneration and protect against Alzheimer's disease. The University of Massachusetts Medical School, the awardee, will leverage the C. elegans model system to 1) determine how bacterial vitamin B12 production protects against neurodegeneration, 2) investigate how the bacterium Buttiauxella protects against...
This federal Project Grant award of $340,449, funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) under the Research and Training in Complementary and Integrative Health program (CFDA 93.213), supports research to identify mechanisms for protecting the gut microbiome during antibiotic treatment. The primary objectives are to use an ex vivo microbiome culture approach to test endogenous redox sinks and small molecule regulators of bacterial redox as modulators of...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Biomedical Research and Research Training Program (CFDA 93.859) provides $854,736 to support the development of robust statistical methods for analyzing longitudinal microbiome studies. The primary objectives are to create tools for addressing batch effects, identifying microbiome-exposure associations over time, characterizing microbiome interaction network dynamics, and improving data...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), provides $158,260 to the University of Virginia to investigate the role of enteric glial cells in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) using the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model. The research aims to characterize T cell responses against enteric glial cells, which express myelin proteins, and...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Biomedical Research and Research Training Program (CFDA 93.859) provides $1,132,500.00 to The Medical University of South Carolina to conduct research on the complex interactions between gut microbes and intestinal mucus. The overarching goal is to unravel the mechanisms by which commensal gut microbiota respond to mucus and stimulate mucus production by the host. The research will use cutting-edge...
This federal Project Grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), under the Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.855), is funding a research project focused on the discovery and engineering of microbial enzymes that can modulate peptidoglycan metabolites in the gut microbiome. The primary objectives are to identify highly active, secreted, and stable peptidoglycan-degrading enzymes (Aim 1) and develop genetically engineered probiotic...
This Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), under the Child Health and Human Development Extramural Research program (CFDA 93.865), will support research to investigate how the gut microbiome composition impacts gastrointestinal (GI) and central nervous system (CNS) function in a mouse model of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The $430,375 award to the partnership between Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University Health Sciences will...
This federal Project Grant award for $863,500.00 was issued by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) under the Research and Training in Complementary and Integrative Health program (CFDA 93.213). The funding will support research to investigate the impact of gut microbiome dysbiosis on the transport of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and its relevance to autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis (MS).
Specifically, the project aims to examine how MS-associated gut dysbiosis may trigger inflammation and reduce expression of SCFA transporter genes, thereby limiting SCFA transport into systemic circulation. The research will leverage animal models transplanted with fecal samples from MS patients and healthy donors to study SCFA transport mechanisms and the development of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (an animal model of MS). The project will also explore the potential for synbiotic interventions, such as high-fiber diets and the probiotic Blautia massiliensis, to promote SCFA production and transport as a treatment approach for autoimmune diseases. The award period runs from September 2024 through August 2026.