Project Grant R35GM166251

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences awarded Georgia State University Research Foundation Inc. $434,729 on September 1, 2026, under the Biomedical Research and Research Training program (CFDA 93.859) to support research on bacteriophage gene essentiality and infection dynamics across environmental contexts.

The award funds research to map phage gene function and track infection dynamics using complementary molecular approaches. The work will exploit DNA mismatch-repair deficient hosts to create full mutant libraries of bacteriophages, generating near-saturated mutational landscapes to identify differentially essential versus non-essential phage genes and determine how gene essentiality varies across bacterial strains and environments. The research will also adapt single-cell RNA sequencing to capture transcriptional programs of both bacteria and phages within individual infected cells, revealing how bacterial physiological state influences susceptibility to phage infection and how phages retune their transcription to exploit different host environments. Integration of these tools will define how environmental and host factors shape phage gene function and how bacterial heterogeneity alters infection outcomes, addressing knowledge gaps in phage-host interactions and bacterial transcriptional heterogeneity.

The award is classified as a Project Grant. Period of performance extends from September 1, 2026, through August 31, 2031. Work is performed in Atlanta, Georgia. Principal investigator is James Gurney.