# HPMI: Host Pathogen Mapping Initiative

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · 2020 · $2,000,000

## Abstract

THE HOST PATHOGEN MAP INITIATIVE:
A NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER FOR SYSTEMS BIOLOGY OF INFECTIOUS
DISEASE
OVERALL SUMMARY
Antibiotic-resistant pathogens are no longer an “emerging” threat as we face the reality of a return to the
pre-antibiotic age where treatments for the simplest microbial infections are ineffective. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 2 million people acquire a serious resistant
bacterial infection each year, and at least 23,000 deaths result. These numbers will increase dramatically as
our ability to fight these infections diminishes. Unfortunately, there have been no novel classes of antibiotics
discovered since the 1960s, underscoring the fact that novel approaches are required to develop novel
therapies to treat infection. As a result of these facts, it is now being realized that efforts to develop
host-directed therapies to treat infectious diseases may have unique advantages. Also, recent work has
revealed that although similar proteins may not be targeted by different pathogens, the same functional
pathways are often hijacked and re-wired during the course of infection. For these reasons, the study of
infectious disease is becoming increasingly dependent on knowledge of biological networks of multiple types,
including physical interactions among proteins and synthetic-lethal and epistatic interactions among genes,
which allow for deconstruction of functional pathways.
Here we seek support for a new effort, termed The Host Pathogen Map Initiative (HPMI)
(http://www.hpmi.ucsf.edu), aimed at comprehensively detailing the complex interactions among pathogenic
genes and proteins with the host factors they hijack and rewire during the course of infection. The HPMI is a
multi-campus initiative of the University of California, centered at UC San Francisco and UC-Berkeley, which
leverages advanced network mapping, computational analysis and infectious disease research platforms
developed by multiple HPMI investigators over the past decade. Thus primed, these platforms will be turned to
efficiently generate, assemble, and analyze host-pathogen molecular networks with a view towards using this
information in a clinical setting.
Over the next five years, the HPMI will seek to catalyze major phase transitions in pathogenesis research by
(1) Comprehensively mapping the networks of physical interactions using sets of secreted proteins from three
bacteria; ​Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), ​Staphylococcus aureus (SA) and ​Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) with
their host, revealing the protein complexes and higher-order molecular units targeted by these pathogens; (2)
Mapping the parallel networks of synthetic-lethal and epistatic interactions among the genes being targeted by
the bacteria, revealing the functional logic of pathogenesis; (3) Establishing the robust computational
methodology, end-user software, and databases for assembly and use of host-pathogen network maps in both
basic and clinical mo...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9984271
- **Project number:** 5U19AI135990-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Nevan J Krogan
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $2,000,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-17 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9984271

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9984271, HPMI: Host Pathogen Mapping Initiative (5U19AI135990-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9984271. Licensed CC0.

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