# Regulation of antibiotic tolerance in Mycobacterium abscessus by proteolytic signaling

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2024 · $241,375

## Abstract

ABSTRACT:
Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infections such as Mycobacterium abscessus (Mabs) are a
growing health concern, particularly in older and immunocompromised patient populations, and
are among the most difficult bacterial infections to eradicate. Thus, there remains a critical need
to understand the mechanisms enabling Mabs to survive prolonged exposure to lethal antibiotics.
The central hypothesis of this proposal is that antibiotic tolerance is a regulated process,
controlled by pathways that sense discrete stresses, and transduce signals leading to a
coordinated cellular response that mitigates antibiotic cytotoxicity. In our preliminary data we
present the results of a Tn-Seq screen to identify genes contributing to antibiotic tolerance. We
now propose to use cutting-edge proteomics to study several proteases that were identified in the
Tn-Seq screen.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10953347
- **Project number:** 1R21AI185949-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Bennett Penn
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $241,375
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-06-01 → 2026-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10953347

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10953347, Regulation of antibiotic tolerance in Mycobacterium abscessus by proteolytic signaling (1R21AI185949-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10953347. Licensed CC0.

---

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