# A Rationally Targeted Approach to Preventing GBS Infection

> **NIH NIH K08** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2020 · $189,972

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Dr. Thomas Hooven is a neonatologist and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University studying
Streptococcus agalactiae (group B Streptococcus; GBS), the major infectious cause of neonatal morbidity and
mortality. His research, under the mentorship of Dr. Adam Ratner, focuses on genes and gene networks that
enable GBS to successfully colonize the maternal reproductive tract and to survive in amniotic fluid and blood
during perinatal infection. Using a novel genome-wide screening technique based on next-generation
sequencing of transposon-genome junctions from a saturated mutant library (Tn-seq), Dr. Hooven can
accurately predict GBS genes whose protein products are necessary for bacterial growth under diverse
experimental conditions. His proposed research seeks to use Tn-seq technology—in combination with ex vivo
and in vivo models of colonization and invasion—to pinpoint surface-localized GBS proteins whose functions
are essential for pathogenesis. Once validated by targeted knockout and antibody coincubation experiments,
those proteins identified as essential for pathogenesis will be purified and tested as candidate vaccines to
prevent vaginal colonization, ascending chorioamnionitis, and early-onset sepsis in clinically relevant mouse
models. Recognizing that vaccine efficacy may depend on a combination of humoral and cellular immune
mechanisms, this proposal also includes studies of opsonophagocytosis after antibody binding to candidate
vaccine protein targets and T cell responses to immunization and vaginal colonization.
By performing this research, Dr. Hooven will advance scientific understanding of GBS pathogenesis and bring
society closer to a safe and effective vaccine to prevent devastating neonatal GBS infections. He will also
expand his experimental repertoire through exposure to key methods in bioinformatics, immunology, molecular
genetics, and vaccine development. This project will provide crucial training that will set the stage for his
transition to becoming an independent investigator. Upon completion of the proposed research, Dr. Hooven will
be ready to assume oversight of his own basic and translational research program aimed at advancing
neonatal health through new insights into infection and new approaches toward its prevention and treatment.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10076140
- **Project number:** 7K08AI132555-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Thomas A Hooven
- **Activity code:** K08 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $189,972
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2018-02-05 → 2022-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10076140

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10076140, A Rationally Targeted Approach to Preventing GBS Infection (7K08AI132555-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10076140. Licensed CC0.

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