The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA (TLI) announced today that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a new grant (P01AI186818) to Dr. Ashraf S. Ibrahim, PhD, a TLI Investigator, a Professor of Medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and a leading authority on mucormycosis pathogenesis. The grant provides $2.2 million in first-year funding and $11,269,858 million in total projected support over the next five years to launch MUCOR-ADVANCE, an ambitious effort to revolutionize risk stratification, early diagnosis, and treatment of mucormycosis, one of the world's most lethal fungal infections.
MUCOR-ADVANCE unites three tightly integrated research projects supported by Clinical, Genomics/Transcriptomics, and Administrative Cores from TLI, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and University of Maryland. In addition to Dr. Ibrahim, the TLI team includes Dr. Scott Filler, MD, Dr. Priya Uppuluri, PhD, and Dr. Yiyou Gu, PhD. The MD Anderson team will be led by the internationally renowned clinician/Medical Mycologist Dr. Dimitrios Kontoyiannis, MD, ScD, PhD, Dr. Sebastian Wurster, MD, Dr. Teny John, MD , and Dr. Stephanie Watowich, PhD, while the University of Maryland team will be led by Dr. Vincent Bruno, PhD an internationally renowned expert in the field of mucormycosis omics research. The entire team will work to identify novel Mucorales toxins and invasins, decipher metabolic roadblocks, and leverage patient-derived samples to discover prognostic biomarkers and repurpose FDA-approved immunomodulators.
"This investment from NIAID validates two decades of collaborative research and positions us to finally outpace a disease that currently kills at least half of the patients it strikes," said Dr. Ibrahim. "By unraveling how Mucorales fungi disarm the immune system, we aim to deliver rapid diagnostic tests and immune-based therapies that can save lives within this decade."
A coordinated, multi-institutional assault on a neglected threat
Mucorales fungi cause mucormycosis is a fast-moving infection with an overall mortality rate of 50 percent, approaching 100 percent mortality in high-risk groups. Susceptible hosts include individuals with diabetic ketoacidosis, transplant recipients, those receiving intensive corticosteroid therapy, and those subjected to severe trauma. Despite rising incidence worldwide, progress has been slow and fragmented.
By combining fundamental mycology, cutting-edge immunology, and translational medicine, the team expects to deliver rapid diagnostics, host- and pathogen-directed immunotherapies, and evidence-based clinical algorithms to help stratify patients and tailor therapeutic interventions.
These studies will not only save lives threatened by mucormycosis but also establish new paradigms for tackling other emerging fungal pathogens. We are proud of Dr. Ibrahim's visionary leadership and grateful to NIAID for its confidence in our institute's mission to accelerate translational discoveries that will save lives worldwide."
Joe W. Ramos, PhD, President & CEO of TLI
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