Nih Awards Major Grant To Advance Mucormycosis Research

The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation astatine Harbor-UCLA (TLI) announced coming that nan National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), portion of nan National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a caller assistance (P01AI186818) to Dr. Ashraf S. Ibrahim, PhD, a TLI Investigator, a Professor of Medicine astatine David Geffen School of Medicine astatine UCLA, and a starring authority connected mucormycosis pathogenesis. The assistance provides $2.2 cardinal successful first-year backing and $11,269,858 cardinal successful full projected support complete nan adjacent 5 years to motorboat MUCOR-ADVANCE, an eager effort to revolutionize consequence stratification, early diagnosis, and curen of mucormycosis, 1 of nan world's astir lethal fungal infections.

MUCOR-ADVANCE unites 3 tightly integrated investigation projects supported by Clinical, Genomics/Transcriptomics, and Administrative Cores from TLI, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and University of Maryland. In summation to Dr. Ibrahim, nan TLI squad includes Dr. Scott Filler, MD, Dr. Priya Uppuluri, PhD, and Dr. Yiyou Gu, PhD. The MD Anderson squad will beryllium led by nan internationally renowned clinician/Medical Mycologist Dr. Dimitrios Kontoyiannis, MD, ScD, PhD, Dr. Sebastian Wurster, MD, Dr. Teny John, MD , and Dr. Stephanie Watowich, PhD, while nan University of Maryland squad will beryllium led by Dr. Vincent Bruno, PhD an internationally renowned master successful nan section of mucormycosis omics research. The full squad will activity to place caller Mucorales toxins and invasins, decipher metabolic roadblocks, and leverage patient-derived samples to observe prognostic biomarkers and repurpose FDA-approved immunomodulators.

"This finance from NIAID validates 2 decades of collaborative investigation and positions america to yet outpace a illness that presently kills astatine slightest half of nan patients it strikes," said Dr. Ibrahim. "By unraveling really Mucorales fungi disarm nan immune system, we purpose to present accelerated diagnostic tests and immune-based therapies that tin prevention lives wrong this decade."

A coordinated, multi-institutional battle connected a neglected threat

Mucorales fungi origin mucormycosis is simply a fast-moving infection pinch an wide mortality complaint of 50 percent, approaching 100 percent mortality successful high-risk groups. Susceptible hosts see individuals pinch diabetic ketoacidosis, transplant recipients, those receiving intensive corticosteroid therapy, and those subjected to terrible trauma. Despite rising incidence worldwide, advancement has been slow and fragmented.

By combining basal mycology, cutting-edge immunology, and translational medicine, nan squad expects to present accelerated diagnostics, host- and pathogen-directed immunotherapies, and evidence-based objective algorithms to thief stratify patients and tailor therapeutic interventions.

These studies will not only prevention lives threatened by mucormycosis but besides found caller paradigms for tackling different emerging fungal pathogens. We are proud of Dr. Ibrahim's visionary activity and grateful to NIAID for its assurance successful our institute's ngo to accelerate translational discoveries that will prevention lives worldwide."

Joe W. Ramos, PhD, President & CEO of TLI