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Understanding protection against norovirus at the maternal-child interface

Award Number: K24AI141744
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 12/06/2018
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 01/31/2029

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Understanding protection against norovirus at the maternal-child interface - MODIFIED ABSTRACT SECTION This K24 renewal builds upon the successful clinical research and mentorship performed by the candidate, Sylvia Becker-Dreps, MD, MPH. As a natural extension of Dr. Becker-Dreps’ previous work on human norovirus (NoV), this proposal expands her research skillset to investigate maternal protection against NoV in early childhood. Understanding how the maternal-child interface acts to protect against NoV can guide interventions to reduce childhood NoV disease burden. In addition, she plans to purposefully integrate trainees into her research. Candidate: Dr. Becker-Dreps is a physician-scientist dually appointed in Family Medicine and Epidemiology. Her research focuses on the epidemiology and prevention of viral gastroenteritis in children. She employs a multidisciplinary approach combining robust field epidemiology with state-of-the-art laboratory methods. Her group contributed to understanding poor rotavirus vaccine performance in low-resource settings and characterized the natural history, clinical characteristics, and risk factors for sapovirus gastroenteritis. During the first K24 award period, she shifted her focus to NoV, and answered fundamental questions about the development of NoV immunity to inform vaccine development. The proposed career development activities will expand Dr. Becker-Dreps’ skillsets to allow her to characterize components of maternal protection against NoV in early life. Research Plan: The proposed research builds on recent epidemiological findings showing that maternal glycobiology is associated with protection against NoV. Specifically, her group found that children of mothers who are “secretors” of fut-2-dependent fucosylated oligosaccharides have a lower risk of NoV. Using existing data and biobanked samples from a Nicaraguan birth cohort including 419 breastfeeding mother-child dyads, she plans to elucidate differences in breastmilk oligosaccharide composition and NoV-specific antibodies in breastmilk and serum by maternal secretor status, and to understand their independent contributions to the risk of NoV in early life. She will also determine whether differences in infant gut microbiome composition are associated with the risk of NoV gastroenteritis. Mentoring Plan. Dr. Becker-Dreps has an established track record of successfully mentoring trainees in patient-oriented research, and for attracting highly-competitive trainees. Trainees will be offered access to existing data and samples from two large maternal-child cohort studies and will be encouraged to identify independent research projects that they can take ownership of. To complement her one-on-one project-based mentorship, she will leverage UNC’s extensive resources, including from UNC’s CTSA, NIH-funded training programs, and through a new leadership role at the UNC Office of Global Health Education. Without K24 funding, her available time for mentorship is limited. She plans to use protected time afforded by the K24 renewal to provide high quality mentorship to early clinical investigators with the goal of cultivating the next generation of infectious disease investigators.


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 = $197,612 )
2026	2026	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	8	3/27/2026	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$197,612
														Subtotal = $197,612

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $198,174 )
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	001	7	2/13/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$198,174
2025	2023	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	5	11/22/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $198,174

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $198,894 )
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	001	6	1/31/2024	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$198,894
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	002	6	3/4/2024	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2024	2023	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	5	1/23/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $198,894

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $168,367 )
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	5	11/16/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$168,367
														Subtotal = $168,367

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $167,511 )
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	4	11/23/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$167,511
														Subtotal = $167,511

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $168,497 )
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	3	11/19/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$168,497
														Subtotal = $168,497

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $169,668 )
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	001	2	3/25/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	2	11/29/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$169,668
														Subtotal = $169,668

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $169,518 )
2019	2019	UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL	104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200	CHAPEL HILL	NC	27599	ORANGE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	1	12/6/2018	NEW	$169,518
														Subtotal = $169,518

Grand Total All Awards = $1,438,241

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Understanding protection against norovirus at the maternal-child interface

Award Number: K24AI141744

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: TRAINING/TRAINEESHIP

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 12/06/2018

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 01/31/2029

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