Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( 🔒 ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Need Help

Enabling Novel Strategies for the Clinical Care of Urinary Tract Infection via Microbial Engineering

Award Number: F99DK143562
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DIABETES & DIGESTIVE & KIDNEY DISEASES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/01/2025
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2026
AWARD TERMINATION DATE: 02/05/2026

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Enabling Novel Strategies for the Clinical Care of Urinary Tract Infection via Microbial Engineering - Each year, urinary tract infections (UTI) affect over 400 million people worldwide, such that nearly half of all women will have a UTI within their lifetime. However, the exponential rise in antibiotic resistance of uropathogenic bacteria profoundly threatens our ability to treat UTI. Thus, it is imperative that measures are quickly taken to reduce the rise of resistance and develop alternative strategies to treating UTI. The goal of this proposal is two- fold: develop a point-of-care diagnostic which can rapidly detect UTI and develop a novel treatment for UTI via in situ commensal microbiome engineering. 1) Conventional diagnostic strategies for UTI (e.g., urine culture) are insensitive, non-specific, and/or time consuming. As a result, antibiotics are primarily prescribed before diagnostic results are received, which can result in unnecessary antibiotic use and in turn, contribute to the rise of resistance. To address this, I will combine padlock probes and in vitro transcription and translation systems to detect pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes in urine in less than an hour at the point-of-care. This should reduce unnecessary antibiotic use by providing rapid and accurate UTI diagnoses. 2) Commensal urobiota have been shown to decrease the pathogenicity of UTIs. However, attempts to modulate the microbiome via probiotics have seen inconsistent efficacy in the treatment of UTI, which may be due to poor colonization. To address this, I will engineer the urinary microbiome in situ to downregulate UTI pathogenicity. Briefly, phages will be engineered to deliver therapeutic genes to diverse strains common to the urinary microbiome. These phages will be validated to work in in vitro and in vivo models of UTI. In total, this proposal will enable a novel diagnostic and therapeutic approach for the clinical care of UTI which could be leveraged for a variety of microbiome-based urological and kidney diseases.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = -$7,197 )
2026	2025	GEORGIA TECH RESEARCH CORP	926 DALNEY ST NW	ATLANTA	GA	30318	FULTON	USA	Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research	000	1	2/5/2026	TERMINATION	-$7,197
														Subtotal = -$7,197

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $51,538 )
2025	2025	GEORGIA TECH RESEARCH CORP	926 DALNEY ST NW	ATLANTA	GA	30318	FULTON	USA	Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases Extramural Research	000	1	6/30/2025	NEW	$51,538
														Subtotal = $51,538

Grand Total All Awards = $44,341

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Enabling Novel Strategies for the Clinical Care of Urinary Tract Infection via Microbial Engineering

Award Number: F99DK143562

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DIABETES & DIGESTIVE & KIDNEY DISEASES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: FELLOWSHIP/SCHOLARSHIP/STUDENT LOANS

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/01/2025

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2026

AWARD TERMINATION DATE: 02/05/2026

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer