# A Resource Center for Tetrahymena Thermophila

> **NIH NIH P40** · WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $569,305

## Abstract

This proposal seeks continued funding for the Tetrahymena Stock Center to enable maintenance of its current
operations, expand its capabilities, and ensure its sustainability as the primary resource for the preservation
and distribution of genetically defined strains of Tetrahymena. Investigations aimed at understanding
Tetrahymena biology have contributed many novel and important findings on cellular mechanisms that have
direct relevance to human health and disease including cancer, infertility, and aging. Tetrahymena has also
shown great promise as a platform for the production of recombinant proteins, including vaccine antigens and
difficult-to-express human ion channels. Furthermore, it serves as an engaging teaching tool in K-12 and
undergraduate classrooms. Specifically, our overall aims for the resource are to 1) continue to act as a strain
repository accepting new strains and making cultures of Tetrahymena available to scientists and science
educators at reasonable cost; 2) expand the resource by integrating additional large collections; 3) increase
the visibility of Stock Center resources and increase publication of research findings by partnering with
microPublications Biology; 4) curate new genomic information into the Tetrahymena Genome Database; 5)
improve curation of stocks by assigning RRID designations to new acquisitions and use bioinformatics to link
genes associated with specific stocks to human disease-associated genes; 6) increase the interoperability of
genomic data by updating the current gene annotations and expanding the use of Gene Ontology
designations; 7) facilitate new analyses by displaying gene expression data sets; 8) improve the Stock Center
website and increase its capacity to gather assessment data; 9) use genomic data to identify the genetic
lesions of strains in the repository with striking phenotypes thereby spurring additional research; 10) optimize
gene knockout strategies to allow for timely completion of Tetrahymena strain engineering services offered by
the Stock Center. Together, these activities aim to keep Tetrahymena at the forefront of biomedical research
and achieve the Overall outcome of increasing research capacity of investigators using ciliates to make
significant discoveries.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10850068
- **Project number:** 2P40OD010964-20
- **Recipient organization:** WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** DOUGLAS LEE CHALKER
- **Activity code:** P40 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $569,305
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2004-04-01 → 2029-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10850068

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10850068, A Resource Center for Tetrahymena Thermophila (2P40OD010964-20). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10850068. Licensed CC0.

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