# Development of Tools for Conditional Knockouts in Chlamydia

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER · 2020 · $190,625

## Abstract

Project Summary: Development of Tools for Conditional Knockouts in Chlamydia
 Chlamydia is an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen that causes a range of serious diseases in
humans. In developed countries, Chlamydia trachomatis is the primary cause of bacterial sexually transmitted
infections (STI). In developing countries, C. trachomatis is not only a significant cause of STI, but it is also
responsible for the primary cause of infectious preventable blindness, trachoma. The major concern of
chlamydial infections is that they are often asymptomatic and undiagnosed, which can lead to chronic
sequelae. These include pelvic inflammatory disease, tubal factor infertility, and reactive arthritis for C.
trachomatis. Consequently, chlamydial diseases remain a significant burden on health care systems around
the world.
 In adapting to obligate intracellular growth, Chlamydia has significantly reduced its genome size and
eliminated genes from various pathways as it relies on the host cell for its metabolic needs. This, combined
with its obligate intracellular dependence, makes Chlamydia a difficult organism with which to work and study.
Recent development of genetic tools to study chlamydiae mechanistically have significantly enhanced our
understanding of this pathogen. However, because most chlamydial genes are likely to be essential, the
current toolset is insufficient to study these critical genes. We have demonstrated the feasibility of CRISPR
interference to inducibly knock down chlamydial gene expression, in other words, to create conditional
knockouts. The proposal is designed to leverage our early successes to better characterize and refine the
utility of the system as well as to develop complementary strategies for blocking chlamydial protein function.
Results will lead to the identification of novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets that have the potential to
identify and treat asymptomatic chlamydial infections.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9962290
- **Project number:** 5R21AI141933-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Scot P Ouellette
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $190,625
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2021-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9962290

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9962290, Development of Tools for Conditional Knockouts in Chlamydia (5R21AI141933-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9962290. Licensed CC0.

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