Federal Grant Award Summary

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey received a $321,304 Project Grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859), effective April 1, 2026, through March 31, 2031. This award supports fundamental research investigating the metabolic regulation of innate immunity-dependent wound healing in situ. The research employs zebrafish (Danio rerio) as an in vivo model system to examine how intracellular metabolism in individual cells and metabolic crosstalk between different cell types—specifically immune and stromal cells—coordinate to enable productive tissue repair. The project utilizes fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) of endogenous metabolic coenzymes, including nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (phosphate) (NAD(P)H) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), to enable spatiotemporal analysis of intracellular metabolism changes in macrophages and other cell types during wound responses in live organisms.

The research addresses significant knowledge gaps in understanding how dysregulated wound healing contributes to multiple human diseases, including cardiac disease, autoimmune disorders, chronic wounds, cancer, and infection. By advancing understanding of the integrated metabolic regulation of tissue repair, this project generates fundamental biomedical knowledge that supports the NIGMS mission to lay the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. The work will be conducted at the Newark, New Jersey location of Rutgers' Robert Wood Johnson Health Sciences School of Nursing.