Programs and Activities Highlights
- Fiscal Year 2025 C06 Post-Award Webinar
On November 20, 2025, ORIP held an informational webinar to kick off fiscal year 2025 NIH C06 construction projects. More than 75 participants from all 14 grantee institutions attended, representing various project roles, including principal investigators, signing officials, project managers, and architect/engineering team members. The webinar covered such key topics as project and budget timelines, design requirements, technical review processes, environmental policy, NIH grant compliance, and reporting requirements throughout the grant period and 10-year duration of Federal Interest following project completion. ORIP’s Division of Construction and Instruments supports programs that fund the construction, renovation, and modernization of research space by issuing notices of funding opportunities when congressional appropriations are available. The overall objective of these programs is to provide modernized physical infrastructure that meets up-to-date engineering requirements to conduct cutting-edge NIH-funded biomedical research.
- Closeout Site Visit to the University of Miami
On December 18, 2025, ORIP staff conducted a virtual site visit to the University of Miami (UM) Miller School of Medicine’s centralized biospecimen repository facility, supported by NIH grant C06OD030170. Opened in January 2025, this facility has expanded storage capacity from 500,000 to 5 million specimens, featuring automated −80°C modular storage with triple-redundant backup systems and continuous monitoring to ensure sample integrity. Advanced capabilities include biological safety cabinets, cryogenic storage, and dedicated clinical trials infrastructure supporting NIH-funded research, multisite collaborations, and precision medicine initiatives with electronic medical record integration. The facility has managed 1.2 million samples across 222 studies, serving 68 principal investigators from 17 UM departments and 11 external partners. This infrastructure strengthens UM’s competitiveness for NIH funding and faculty recruitment while advancing the UM Precision Medicine Initiative (UPROMISE) in Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders, and infectious diseases research, with regional impact on the broad biomedical research field.
- Closeout Site Visit to the University of Louisville
On January 16, 2026, ORIP staff conducted a virtual closeout site visit to the University of Louisville’s newly renovated centralized vivarium, supported by NIH construction grant C06OD030129. The $8 million award funded the transformation of the ninth floor of the A-Tower Research Building into a modern, centralized vivarium and research facility. The project consolidated animal housing previously dispersed across nine A-Tower floors and a dental school space, significantly improving operational efficiency and research workflows. The new facility features a highly flexible design with multipurpose rooms that can function as housing or procedural space. Key enhancements include improved barrier-level biosecurity, isolation of the vivarium from public areas, animal biosafety level 2 procedure space, specialized inhalation rooms, and expanded zebrafish housing capacity. Occupancy of the facility began on December 12, 2024, and the facility now supports 29 investigators from 12 departments and four centers with more than $34 million in NIH funding, positioning the institution for future research growth.
- Final Site Visit to the University of Illinois Chicago
On July 14, 2025, ORIP staff performed a virtual site visit to two NIH-funded facilities at The University of Illinois Chicago that were supported by grants C06RR016560 and C06RR020087. The Center for Structural Biology building met all objectives, providing state-of-the-art nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry, electron microscopy, and mass spectrometry cores that now serve more than 225 internal and 130 external users. Expanded instrumentation, increased user demand, and improved environmental sustainability have driven significant growth, including major increases in core revenue, multiple patents, startup companies, and federally supported drug discovery efforts. The Behavioral Neurobiology Center renovation modernized outdated laboratories and created integrated basic and clinical neuroscience research spaces. The facility enabled substantial faculty and trainee recruitment, approximately $60 million in grant funding, and hundreds of neuroscience publications. Shared spaces promote translational research in addiction, depression, and resilience.
- Final Site Visit to the University of Michigan
The virtual site visit on July 11, 2025, reviewed two NIH-funded facilities at the University of Michigan (UM) that were supported by grants C06RR017514 and C06RR016573. Renovation of the Pharmacy Research Building created shared laboratories for the Center for Molecular Drug Targeting, enabling major growth in research productivity, recruitment of eight faculty members, support for 325 trainees, $79 million in funding, 634 publications, 47 patents, and several UM-affiliated startup companies. These activities continue producing long-lasting impact on research and economic outcomes. The Positron Emission Tomography Cyclotron Facility successfully replaced an outdated cyclotron; expanded radiochemistry capabilities; and supported extensive clinical and research programs, including U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved radiopharmaceuticals, 479 publications, and 19 patents. The facility serves more than 30 personnel and numerous external investigators with $87 million in research funding, broadly benefiting research communities beyond the region.
Read more in the archive.
ORIP-Supported Research Highlights
- Development and Validation of an Ultra–High Performance Liquid Chromatography–Tandem Mass Spectrometry Method for Quantifying Lenacapavir Plasma Concentrations: Application to Therapeutic Monitoring
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is used to treat patients with HIV. Lenacapavir is a U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved ART. Following initial doses of lenacapavir taken orally and injected beneath the skin, the patient gives themselves a dose by injection once every 6 months. With this long-acting and infrequent dosing, patients may need to be monitored to ensure that proper drug levels are achieved in the body to prevent viral mutations that could cause drug resistance. Researchers developed a novel mass spectrometry (an analytical chemistry instrument to measure molecules in a sample) method to test the effectiveness of ART by measuring lenacapavir levels in human plasma. The researchers validated the new method using a large range of clinically relevant doses. The results showed that the method is precise and consistent. This study suggests that the method can monitor lenacapavir levels in human plasma and evaluate ART effectiveness in clinical settings.
- Cryo-EM Structures of HBV Capsids from Human Cells at Near-Atomic Resolution
More than 800,000 deaths per year are caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV)–induced liver inflammation, cirrhosis (scarring liver), and hepatocellular carcinoma. Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a microscope technique that images samples cooled to very low temperatures. Using cryo-EM, researchers determined the structure of HBV capsids (a protein shell that surrounds and protects the virus) purified from human cells. Along with computer simulations and analyses, results highlighted the dynamic regulation of HBV capsid structure and how it contributes to virion (an infectious form of virus) secretion, viral assembly, and envelopment. This could be a potential mechanism for developing HBV-specific antiviral drugs for disease treatment.
- Targeting FSP1 Triggers Ferroptosis in Lung Cancer
Growing evidence shows that cancer cells are highly sensitive to lipid peroxidation (a chemical process that degrades lipids in cell membranes). Ferroptosis is a form of cell death that relies on iron and lipid peroxidation, and two proteins known to suppress ferroptosis are GPX4 and FSP1. In this study, researchers used 8- to 12-week-old genetically engineered mouse models for lung cancer (both sexes used) and selectively deleted these two proteins. Results showed that deleting GPX4 and FSP1 triggered lipid peroxidation and significantly inhibited lung adenocarcinoma tumor development. FSP1 was essential for protecting tumors from ferroptosis in vivo (within an organism) but not in vitro (outside of an organism), highlighting the utility of the mouse models to mimic the physiological conditions of patients. FSP1 expression correlated with disease progression and reduced survival in lung adenocarcinoma patients, unlike GPX4. Drug inhibition of FSP1 showed substantial therapeutic efficacy in preclinical models. These findings establish ferroptosis as a barrier to tumor development and identify FSP1 inhibition as a promising novel therapy for lung cancer patients.
- Imaging-Guided Deep Tissue In Vivo Sound Printing
Three-dimensional printing has shown promise for patient-specific implants and therapies but often requires invasive surgical procedures. This study introduces a novel platform called deep tissue in vivo sound printing (DISP), which uses injected ultrasound-responsive “bioinks” to fabricate complex bioprints deep within living tissues on demand. With ultrasound imaging offering precise targeting and real-time monitoring, DISP achieved high-resolution (~150 µm) and high-speed (up to 40 mm s-1) printing of functional biomaterials—including conductive hydrogels, cell-laden constructs, drug-loaded carriers, and bioadhesives—within mouse bladder and rabbit muscle in vivo (sex not specified). Biocompatibility was confirmed via histology, showing no signs of toxicity or adverse immune response. DISP offers promise for personalized implants, targeted drug delivery, and in situ bioelectronics and may revolutionize regenerative therapy for broad biomedical applications.
- Targeting SUMOylation Promotes cBAF Complex Stabilization and Disruption of the SS18::SSX Transcriptome in Synovial Sarcoma
Metastatic synovial sarcoma (SS) is an aggressive and incurable soft tissue sarcoma in children and young adults. Using human SS cell lines and genetically engineered mouse SS models (males only), researchers identified that SS models are significantly sensitive to genetic targeting of the SUMOylation pathway, which appears to affect chromatin structure and transcriptional function. The SS18::SSX fusion oncogene in SS elevates several SUMO pathway genes. Furthermore, subasumstat, a small-molecule SUMOylation inhibitor, leads to stabilization of the cBAF complex on chromatin and a shift away from the SS18::SSX-driven transcriptome, inducing DNA damage, cell death, and tumor inhibition. These results suggest SUMOylation as a therapeutic target in SS, inviting clinical evaluation of SUMO-pathway inhibitors in the treatment of this aggressive disease.
Read more in the archive.
