# Equipment to facilitate expansion of MMRRC services related to gut microbiota and infectious diseases including SARS-CoV-2 and future infectious agents

> **NIH NIH U42** · UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA · 2021 · $467,993

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
An overarching goal of the Mutant Mouse Resource and Research Center at the University of Missouri (MU-
MMRRC) is to optimize and refine mouse models so that biomedical research using these models can proceed
rapidly and effectively. The MU-MMRRC also conducts resource-related research, often collaboratively, to
further refine and develop mutant mice and capitalize on the power of mouse genetics and associated microbiota
for biomedical research. This proposal enhances the capacity of the MU MMRRC to further characterize and
refine mouse models through characterization of biological material and enhance our capability to examine the
role of infectious disease and the gut microbiome. In the immediate future this equipment will enhance our
ongoing and proposed studies of COVID-19. As part of previous supplemental funding, the MU-MMRRC has
succeeded in advancing this mouse strain as a model for human COVID-19, characterizing viral growth and the
development of acute disease following intranasal and aerosol infection of mice with variations in gut microbiota and
prior infection, recapitulating the disease in humans. As new variants of SARS-CoV-2 emerge from human samples
the K18-hACE2 mouse will play a key role in evaluating pathogenesis and escape of immunity. As of May of 2021,
there have been nearly 32 million survivors of COVID-19 in the United States. As an acute local and systemic
inflammatory response is known to cause long-term post-infectious diseases such as chronic pulmonary and
neurological diseases, the equipment requested for supplement funding will permit the MU-MMRRC an ability to
further characterize and refine the mouse model for the benefit of short- and long-term biomedical research. In
addition, this equipment will help the MU-MMRRC expand its ability to phenotype other mouse models in line with its
long-term research goals of characterizing and optimizing mouse models by examining the effects of differing
microbiota. Current equipment available for use in the BSL3 and ABSL3 laboratories is limited across the nation,
effectively slowing COVID-19 research during this pandemic. Expanding the capacity of the BSL3 equipment
resources available to analyze infected samples will allow the MU-MMRRC to continue to play a critical role in the
biomedical research community and promote studies of pathogenesis for COVID-19. The objective of this proposal is
therefore to provide several key pieces of equipment that are expected to be of use not only to COVID-19 researchers,
but also provide flexibility to other researchers in the region and nation for studying disease pathogenesis in mouse
BSL3 models. The resulting expansion of capabilities will be critical to research on these devastating diseases and
on mouse models in general. Crucially, this equipment has use far beyond the pandemic and has been specifically
chosen to enhance the parent grant’s research goals during this funding cycle and into future funding cycles.
.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10405756
- **Project number:** 3U42OD010918-22S2
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA
- **Principal Investigator:** James Amos-Landgraf
- **Activity code:** U42 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $467,993
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2000-05-01 → 2025-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10405756

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10405756, Equipment to facilitate expansion of MMRRC services related to gut microbiota and infectious diseases including SARS-CoV-2 and future infectious agents (3U42OD010918-22S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10405756. Licensed CC0.

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