Reprogramming therapy cell secretion capacity

NSF Award Search · 01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT · $500,000 · view on nsf.gov ↗

Abstract

Therapeutic cells produce proteins that aid in the treatment of disease. A promising strategy for their use is direct injection of these cells into the human body. Once established inside the body, they would be a constant source of the therapeutic agent. Low cellular production rate is the major limitation of this strategy. Increasing the secretion performance of these cells would make adoption of such strategies more practical. Natural plasma cells (PCs) have much higher antibody secretion rates that other cell types but pose cost and safety concerns. The objective of this project is to modify existing therapy-grade cells with the hyper-secreting capabilities of PCs. Educational and outreach activities will focus on training early-stage researchers. The strategy is to understand the mechanisms that drive the transition of B cells into high antibody-producing PCs and implement them in existing therapy cells. The expression of key transcription factors (TFs) and other regulatory factors will be manipulated. Methods will be developed to systematically tune the expression strengths, ratios and timing of these regulatory elements. This will make it possible to both investigate and optimize the utility of TF expression perturbations for maximizing biologic transcription, translation, post- translational processing, and trafficking through the endoplasmic reticulum. Analyses will be designed to identify combinations of TF- perturbations that maximize the functional secretion

Key facts

NSF award ID
2444134
Awardee
William Marsh Rice University (TX)
SAM.gov UEI
K51LECU1G8N3
PI
Michael R Diehl
Primary program
01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
All programs
Quantitative sys bio and biotech
Estimated total
$500,000
Funds obligated
$500,000
Transaction type
Standard Grant
Period
09/01/2025 → 08/31/2028