Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The University of Chicago received a $451,000 Project Grant award effective April 1, 2026, through the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859). The award supports a five-year research project (concluding January 31, 2031) investigating the regulatory mechanisms controlling desiccation tolerance in Acinetobacter baumannii, an opportunistic bacterial pathogen of significant clinical concern. The research will delineate the precise regulatory networks and signal transduction pathways controlled by the LON protease and BFMR transcriptional regulator to understand how this organism adapts to water loss and persists on abiotic surfaces—a characteristic that contributes to its transmission and establishment in healthcare settings.

This fundamental basic research project will advance scientific understanding of bacterial survival mechanisms with potential applications for infection prevention and disease control strategies. The work builds on preliminary discoveries showing that LON protease-mediated protein turnover coordinates with transcriptional responses to enable long-term survival, and will explore how newly discovered adaptor proteins influence this regulatory system. By clarifying the molecular basis of desiccation tolerance in A. baumannii, the research contributes to the NIGMS mission of supporting investigations that increase understanding of biological processes and provide the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.