Thursday, September 18, 2025 9/18/2025

Spore Assembly in Clostridioides difficile

Award Number: R01AI122232
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/14/2016
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2026

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Spore Assembly in Clostridioides difficile - Clostridioides difficile is the leading cause of nosocomial infections in the US because antibiotic-induced gut dysbiosis is a major risk factor for C. difficile infections. Since the antibiotics used as the first-line therapy for treating C. difficile infections perpetuate this dysbiosis and increase the susceptibility of patients to recurrent infections, highly selective therapies that spare the native gut microbiota are urgently needed to treat and prevent C. difficile infections. We recently discovered that C. difficile’s division mechanism is a promising target for developing such therapies because C. difficile divides using a mechanism that is fundamentally distinct from previously studied organisms. Cell division in bacteria is mediated by a highly conserved multiprotein complex known as the divisome. The genes encoding essential divisome proteins are so conserved that they have been traced to the last common bacterial ancestor. However, we found that C. difficile is missing or does not require many of these divisome proteins for vegetative cell division. For example, functional orthologs of the septal peptidoglycan synthesizing enzymes, FtsW and FtsI, which were thought to be essential for cell division in all walled bacteria, are not encoded in C. difficile. In the absence of FtsW and FtsI, we showed that C. difficile uses a Class A penicillin-binding protein, PBP1, to drive septal peptidoglycan synthesis, revealing a novel function for this class of enzymes in bacteria. C. difficile is also missing the highly conserved FtsEX complex, which coordinates cell separation with cell division in most bacteria. Consistent with this absence, we recently found using time-lapse microscopy that cell division and cell separation are not as tightly coordinated in C. difficile relative to many bacteria. Since our preliminary data indicate that C. difficile uses a distinct machinery to mediate cell division and cell separation, this proposal seeks to identify the proteins that comprise C. difficile’s unique divisome and gain mechanistic insight into how they are assembled into a functional divisome. We will use genetic and biochemical approaches to identify proteins required for C. difficile cell division and cell separation, and we will determine how these proteins are assembled into a functional divisome. We will also define the protein-protein interactions that allow divisome assembly and identify functional domains within key divisome components in C. difficile. By providing novel mechanistic insight into C. difficile’s unique mode of cell division, these analyses will facilitate the development of narrow-spectrum antibiotics against C. difficile.


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: 2025 ( Subtotal = $419,852 )
2025	2025	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	11	8/21/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$419,852
														Subtotal = $419,852

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $419,852 )
2024	2024	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	10	7/30/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$419,852
														Subtotal = $419,852

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $437,421 )
2023	2023	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	9	8/16/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$437,421
														Subtotal = $437,421

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $437,421 )
2022	2022	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	002	8	8/4/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$437,421
2022	2021	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	001	7	4/15/2022	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$41,339
2022	2020	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	6	4/15/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$41,339
														Subtotal = $437,421

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $437,421 )
2021	2021	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	001	7	9/22/2021	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$437,421
2021	2020	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	6	9/14/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $437,421

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $408,675 )
2020	2020	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	6	11/29/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$408,675
2020	2020	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	001	6	4/1/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $408,675

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $408,675 )
2019	2019	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	5	11/14/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$408,675
														Subtotal = $408,675

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $408,675 )
2018	2018	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	4	11/17/2017	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$408,675
														Subtotal = $408,675

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $566,465 )
2017	2017	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE INC	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	001	3	12/28/2016	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$408,675
2017	2017	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	003	3	3/7/2017	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$51,266
2017	2016	UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT & STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE	85 S PROSPECT ST	BURLINGTON	VT	05405	CHITTENDEN	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	002	1	3/7/2017	NEW	-$51,266
2017	2016	TRUSTEES OF TUFTS COLLEGE INC	136 HARRISON AVE	BOSTON	MA	02111	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	2	12/19/2016	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$157,790
														Subtotal = $566,465

Issue Date FY: 2016 ( Subtotal = $382,316 )
2016	2016	UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT	223 WATERMAN BUILDING	BURLINGTON	VT	05405	CHITTENDEN	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	1	11/24/2015	NEW	$382,316
														Subtotal = $382,316

Grand Total All Awards = $4,326,773

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Spore Assembly in Clostridioides difficile

Award Number: R01AI122232

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY & INFECTIOUS DISEASES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

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

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 07/14/2016

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2026

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer