# Reprogramming intestinal immunity in preterm neonates to prevent and cure necrotizing enterocolitis

> **NIH NIH DP1** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2024 · $725,077

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a severe, often fatal intestinal disease of prematurity. Mortality rates
approach 50% if surgery is required to resect necrotic and irreversibly damaged intestinal tissue. Extensive
preclinical research supports a central role for deleterious unrestrained inflammation in intestinal injury and
destruction of the intestinal epithelium. Despite the insight gained from decades of research, treatment options
for infants with NEC are non-specific and often ineffective in the most severe cases. Factors that have impeded
the development of novel effective therapies for this disease include an incomplete understanding of disease
mechanisms in human infants, a lack of biomarkers, and the fragility of critically ill preterm infants. In addition,
NEC is a developmental disease associated with intestinal immaturity, which poses a further challenge in that
interruption of these developmental processes can have lifelong consequences. To overcome these obstacles,
future NEC research must be patient-focused, innovative, and highly collaborative.
 I have spent the last 14 years dedicated to studying NEC and the immunologic mechanisms of disease.
I created the largest biorepository in the world for NEC, which contains tens of thousands of samples obtained
prospectively from premature infants that developed NEC and age-matched control infants. The NEC
Biorepository is a multi-institutional collaborative of leading investigators in NEC research from across the
country. The development of this biorepository was motivated by an urgent need to study larger patient cohorts
and the logistical difficulties of obtaining intestinal samples from critically ill neonates undergoing emergent
surgery. In addition, my laboratory is pioneering efforts in biotherapeutic design and implementation for NEC.
We recently identified the polyfunctional cytokine interleukin-22 as a potentially powerful new immunotherapy for
this disease, and we currently hold a patent for its use in the treatment of NEC.
 This proposal will utilize the invaluable samples in the NEC Biorepository, our collaborative network, and
our extensive expertise in this specialized field to accelerate the growth and development of a new era of NEC
research. We will define new mechanisms of immunopathogenesis and employ innovative interventions to
interrupt the exaggerated injurious response that leads to NEC. In this effort to reprogram intestinal immunity,
we will redefine the paradigms that currently exist in our vague understanding of NEC pathogenesis. This NIDDK
Catalyst Award provides our research program with the opportunity to use groundbreaking techniques to answer
the elusive questions regarding the central disease mechanisms in NEC. We are determined to cure this
devastating disease by interrupting the deleterious inflammatory response that results in intestinal injury in
preterm neonates.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10937505
- **Project number:** 1DP1DK140012-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** MISTY L GOOD
- **Activity code:** DP1 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $725,077
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-08-15 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10937505

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10937505, Reprogramming intestinal immunity in preterm neonates to prevent and cure necrotizing enterocolitis (1DP1DK140012-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-12 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10937505. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*