Award
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 5R01AI173318-04
Engineered probiotic for the treatment of autoimmune diseases
Recipient
Baylor College of Medicine
Award Amount
$688,499.00
Ceiling
$688,499.00
Awarded
February 18, 2026
Identifier
5R01AI173318-04
NIH awarded $688,499 to Baylor College of Medicine for developing an engineered probiotic to treat autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis by delivering an immunomodulator in the gut.
Description
This project aims to engineer a probiotic for oral administration that releases an immunomodulator in the intestines to treat autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The approach involves producing a recombinant analog of ShK, a venom peptide that blocks Kv1.3 channels, using Lactobacillus reuteri LJ01 as the probiotic vector. Preliminary work has demonstrated the efficacy of this method in vitro and in a rat model of RA.