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

TULP3 integrates essential ciliary functions

Award Number: R00GM154060
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/15/2026
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2029

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

TULP3 integrates essential ciliary functions - Primary cilia play a pivotal role in human health, acting as signaling hubs to sense extracellular cues such as odorants, metabolites, light, neurotransmitters, and more. Defects or failure of these signaling hubs to function leads to developmental disorders, immune dysfunction, diabetes, obesity, Parkinson’s disease, cancer, and other pathologies. An early focus of this grant is the generation of better tools to dissect primary cilia function and mechanism, such as a protocol for synchronized ciliogenesis in human retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells coupled with microscopy and shotgun/phosphoproteomic mass spectrometry, to dissect signaling events temporally and spatially. While mapping ciliogenesis via immunofluorescence with known markers of the stages, one protein that emerged as a strong candidate for regulating interpathway communication was TULP3, a 50kDa ciliary protein whose primary known function is in driving the import of ciliary GPCRs through unclear mechanisms. A combination of synchronization and classical cell biological approaches were used to uncover novel phenotypes revealing temporal and spatial timing of TULP3’s function in GPCR traffic as well as new functions in ciliogenesis, downstream of TTBK2 recruitment but before axoneme protrusion. Patient mutations were identified from the use of GWAS databases to probe for links between protein function and human health. Constitutive expression of these TULP3 mutants in TULP3 KO background generated new tools to perturb select functions for TULP3, which is especially powerful for probing function-specific binding domains and partners. This proposal tests the following hypotheses: TULP3 (i) regulates receptor traffic prior to cargo arrival at the basal body and coupling to IFT machinery to mediate receptor entry into cilia and (ii) licenses axonemogenesis. Furthermore, primary cilia perform two different functions in lymphoid tissues: regulating fate change of hematopoietic stem cells into lymphocytes in the bone marrow, and in the lymph node facilitating lymphocyte maturation. These hypotheses will be tested in the following aims: Aim 1- Determine the mechanism by which TULP3 mediates membrane receptor transport into cilia. Aim 2- Identify the function and mechanism of TULP3 in ciliogenesis. Aim 3- Uncover the function of primary cilia and TULP3 in the generation of white blood cells. These aims will be addressed using cell culture and mouse model systems to probe TULP3 function and its role in immunity in both in vitro and in vivo contexts. The success of any and all of these aims will provide novel insight into key mechanisms driving ciliary function and reveal cellular contexts for how disrupted immune function arises. The study of primary cilia in the lymphatic system is largely uncharted territory. As a result, these studies are expected to open new fields of investigation into mechanisms of immune regulation.


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 = $249,000 )
2026	2026	UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SYSTEM	21 N PARK ST STE 6301	MADISON	WI	53715	DANE	USA	Biomedical Research and Research Training	000	3	7/24/2026	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$249,000
														Subtotal = $249,000

Grand Total All Awards = $249,000

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

TULP3 integrates essential ciliary functions

Award Number: R00GM154060

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF GENERAL MEDICAL SCIENCES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/15/2026

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 06/30/2029

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer