Funding Opportunity Number: RFA-AI-24-071
Deadlines
Letter of Intent: 30 days prior to the application due date
Submission: November 4, 2024
Background
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) national surveillance data has shown rates of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) surging for the seventh straight year, including syphilis, which has had an 80% increase in cases since 2017. There were 3,700 congenital syphilis cases reported in 2022, a 937% increase in the past decade. Concurrently, there is a periodic global shortage of benzathine penicillin G, the first line treatment for syphilis. Historically, there have been significant scientific barriers for laboratories to initiate syphilis basic research, including the requirement to propagate the causative bacterial agent, Treponema pallidum, in rabbits, an expensive and complex animal model, and a lack of genetic tools for bacterial pathogenesis studies. Recent significant scientific advances in T. pallidum *in vitro* culture, transformation and targeted mutagenesis technology, and the availability of reagents for use in the guinea pig model of congenital syphilis lowers these historic barriers and may facilitate the entrance of new investigators into the field of syphilis research.
Purpose/Research Objectives
The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity is to encourage investigators to leverage recent scientific developments to advance understanding of T. pallidum pathogenesis.
Specific Areas of Research Interest
Areas of interest for this NOFO include but are not limited to the following:
- Identification and confirmation of integral outer membrane proteins
- Adhesion
- Invasion and dissemination
- Antigenic variation and immune evasion
- Genes and mechanisms involved
- Random mutagenesis studies
- Genetic transformation targeting genes associated with pathogenicity
- Creation of attenuated strains for vaccine development
- In vitro host-pathogen interaction and immunologic studies
- Use the animal model of congenital syphilis to understand immunity and disease progression
- Better understanding of the maternal-fetal interface of transmission
For more information, please see the opportunity webpage.