# Genetic engineering of Mycobacterium leprae to Glow and Grow

> **NIH NIH R21** · ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2022 · $252,000

## Abstract

Project Summary/ Abstract
Leprosy has plagued mankind throughout human history and still afflicts 2 to 3 million people in
Developing Countries. Although the leprosy bacillus was the first bacterium reported to be
associated with human disease, it has yet never been cultivated on artificial media. It can be
grown in the footpads of nude mice or systemically in nine-banded armadillos. With a generation
time of 14 days, testing drug regimens are performed by counting acid-fast bacilli which is
laborious and time-consuming. The comparison of the M. leprae DNA sequence to M.
tuberculosis suggests the inability to culture M. leprae on artificial media might result from the
inability to synthesize methionine, pantothenate and mycobactin. Using genetic tools, we have
developed for M. tuberculosis, we hypothesize M. leprae can be stably transformed with phage-
based integration proficient plasmids. We plan to incorporate a Bioluminescent Resonance
Energy Transfer (BRET)-Nanoluc and Near infra-red proteins into the plasmid to detect
transformants. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the transformation of M. leprae with the missing
methionine and pantothenate biosynthetic genes and the mycobactin transporters will enable M.
leprae to grow on artificial media. An M. leprae strain that glows would enhance drug
development and the ability to assess the immunological mechanisms that control M. leprae
infections. The genetic engineering of M. leprae to grow on artificial media would enhance our
understanding of evolutionary processes that lead to obligate intracellular parasitism.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10526890
- **Project number:** 1R21AI168785-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** WILLIAM Robert JACOBS
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $252,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-05-20 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10526890

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10526890, Genetic engineering of Mycobacterium leprae to Glow and Grow (1R21AI168785-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-29 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10526890. Licensed CC0.

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