Sunday, August 17, 2025 8/17/2025

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Vaccine Development

Award Number: R01AI152417
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: 09/01/2021
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2027

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Vaccine Development - PROJECT SUMMARY: Tick-transmitted rickettsial diseases of the genera Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and Rickettsia remain a growing public health concern in the USA and many parts of the world. The diseases include one of the oldest known rickettsial diseases, Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) caused by Rickettsia rickettsii. RMSF remains a serious disease of people and continues to be a public health concern in the USA and several North, Central and South American countries. Clinical signs of RMSF include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, lack of appetite, and rash. The disease can progress rapidly to a life-threatening illness in untreated patients, resulting in high mortality rates ranging from 30-80%. During the last two decades, reported RMSF cases continue rising in parts of North America. Tick-borne diseases (TBDs) require the interplay of humans, ticks and reservoir animal hosts. We believe that developing a vaccine to prevent the disease can be accomplished by engaging in collaborative research with a team of experts having diverse expertise and yet having common broad research interests. Since dogs develop disease similar to people, a vaccine to prevent the disease in this host will most likely be effective in controlling the disease spread from wildlife, ticks and also infections from dogs to people. We recently tested two experimental vaccines; a subunit vaccine, which included two R. rickettsii recombinant proteins (RCA) and a whole cell inactivated antigen vaccine (WCA), to confer protection against virulent R. rickettsii infection challenge. WCA offered complete protection against RMSF, while RCA did not. This prior published work offers a strong scientific premise for the proposed detailed investigation. In particular, we aim to further characterize WCA in determining A) the duration of protection, B) the role of adjuvants in defining protection, C) the type of immune response observed, and D) the protection against tick transmitted homologous and heterologous challenges. We believe that this project, supported by strong scientific premise, addresses a significant public health problem. The goals are innovative as we will be the first group to investigate RMSF vaccine development using a physiologically relevant animal- tick-pathogen infection model. The central hypothesis of our application is that WCA protects against lethal RMSF caused by blood- and tick-borne infections, resulting from geographically distant pathogen strains, by stimulating immune protection for one year or longer. The specific aims of this application are: 1) Evaluate inactivation methods for preparing WCA and adjuvants in defining the vaccine protection. 2) Evaluate WCA protection against tick-transmitted challenges. 3) Evaluate WCA protection against R. rickettsii heterologous strain infection challenges. At the conclusion of this project, we expect that our efforts will translate to a fully developed vaccine, which is efficacious in an animal model known to naturally acquire R. rickettsii infections from an infected tick leading to life-threatening RMSF. We believe that achieving goals of this application will pave the way for extending vaccine studies to protect people from this lethal disease in the very near future.


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 = $717,631 )
2025	2025	UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SYSTEM	121 UNIVERSITY HALL	COLUMBIA	MO	65211	BOONE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	5	8/7/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$717,631
														Subtotal = $717,631

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2024	2023	UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SYSTEM	121 UNIVERSITY HALL	COLUMBIA	MO	65211	BOONE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	003	4	8/13/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2024	2022	UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SYSTEM	121 UNIVERSITY HALL	COLUMBIA	MO	65211	BOONE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	002	3	12/21/2023	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$295,560
2024	2022	KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY	1601 VATTIER STREET	MANHATTAN	KS	66506	RILEY	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	001	2	12/21/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$1
2024	2021	KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY	1601 VATTIER STREET	MANHATTAN	KS	66506	RILEY	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	1	12/21/2023	NEW	-$295,559
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $742,334 )
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SYSTEM	121 UNIVERSITY HALL	COLUMBIA	MO	65211	BOONE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	002	4	8/3/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$718,983
2023	2022	UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI SYSTEM	121 UNIVERSITY HALL	COLUMBIA	MO	65211	BOONE	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	001	3	7/13/2023	CHANGE OF GRANTEE / TRAINING INSTITUTION / AWARDING INSTITUTION	$756,089
2023	2022	KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY	1601 VATTIER STREET	MANHATTAN	KS	66506	RILEY	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	2	7/13/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$732,738
														Subtotal = $742,334

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $732,739 )
2022	2022	KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY	2 FAIRCHILD HALL	MANHATTAN	KS	66506	RILEY	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	2	8/2/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$732,739
														Subtotal = $732,739

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $760,028 )
2021	2021	KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY	2 FAIRCHILD HALL	MANHATTAN	KS	66506	RILEY	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	1	8/30/2021	NEW	$760,028
														Subtotal = $760,028

Grand Total All Awards = $2,952,732

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever Vaccine Development

Award Number: R01AI152417

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: 09/01/2021

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 08/31/2027

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer