Thursday, July 3, 2025 7/3/2025

The Role of Enterococcus Unique Hypothetical EF1909 in Intrinsic β-lactam Resistance

Award Number: R21AI169730
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: 02/08/2022
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 01/31/2025

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

The Role of Enterococcus Unique Hypothetical EF1909 in Intrinsic β-lactam Resistance - Project summary: Enterococci are leading causes of multidrug resistant hospital acquired infection – the first E in the ESKAPE acronym. We recently showed that the genus Enterococcus differs from its closest extant ancestors in having evolved enhanced traits for survival, including to starvation and desiccation, as well as to challenge by antibiotics and other biocides that target the cell surface. That is, in diverging from its ancestors hundreds of millions of years ago, it gained features making the cell more rugged and impermeable. We found that enterococci possess 10 genes that are rare or do not exist outside of the genus. Moreover, we found that one of these, encoding a hypothetical protein, contributes to intrinsic resistance to b-lactams – the largest class of antibiotics used in human medicine. As a result of this intrinsic resistance, this antibiotic class has been of limited use in controlling enterococcal infection. Here we propose to validate the preliminary results implicating this gene, termed EF1909, in contributing to intrinsic b-lactam resistance and more rigorously and fully assess the phenotype of cells engineered to lack this feature. We additionally assess when in the growth cycle that EF1909 is expressed and determine whether its presence/absence results in cell wall peptiglycan of altered composition as implicated by its contribution to intrinsic b-lactam resistance. If we are able to substantiate the preliminary indications of phenotype in this exploratory work, this would raise the prospect of then screening for EF1909 inhibitors that would be predicted to render enterococci now vulnerable to inexpensive and readily available b-lactam antibiotics. Rendering enterococci readily treatable by b-lactams would be an advance of very high impact for global health.


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 = -$2,527 )
2025	2023	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	2	6/2/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$2,527
														Subtotal = -$2,527

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $212,500 )
2023	2023	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	2	1/10/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$212,500
														Subtotal = $212,500

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $253,000 )
2022	2022	MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY & PHYSICIAN STAFF, INC.	243 CHARLES ST	BOSTON	MA	02114	SUFFOLK	USA	Allergy and Infectious Diseases Research	000	1	2/8/2022	NEW	$253,000
														Subtotal = $253,000

Grand Total All Awards = $462,973

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

The Role of Enterococcus Unique Hypothetical EF1909 in Intrinsic β-lactam Resistance

Award Number: R21AI169730

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: 02/08/2022

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 01/31/2025

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer