{"id":16919,"date":"2026-05-13T09:44:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/?p=16919"},"modified":"2026-05-13T09:44:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T13:44:02","slug":"heise-awarded-two-new-r21-grants-from-niaid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/heise-awarded-two-new-r21-grants-from-niaid\/","title":{"rendered":"Heise Awarded Two New R21 Grants from NIAID"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_9368\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 254px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-9368\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/481\/2020\/10\/Mark-Heise-e1601562562304.jpg\" alt=\"Mark Heise\" width=\"244\" height=\"244\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/481\/2020\/10\/Mark-Heise-e1601562562304.jpg 365w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/481\/2020\/10\/Mark-Heise-e1601562562304-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/481\/2020\/10\/Mark-Heise-e1601562562304-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 244px) 100vw, 244px\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Dr. Mark Heise (Professor, Genetics and M&amp;I)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"lead\">Dr. Mark Heise (Professor, Genetics and M&amp;I) is the recipient of two new R21 awards from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).<\/p>\n<p>One grant is titled \u201cImpact of host genetic variants on regulating chikungunya virus-induced disease\u201d and will focus on \u00a0identifying and validating the specific causal gene under HrCHK1 (chromosome 8 QTL) that regulates CHIKV disease outcomes, while performing additional focused mapping studies to identify the specific gene(s) that confer extreme disease resistance on the CC026 genetic background. \u00a0The other grant is titled \u201cRNA ribosylation\u2019s role in viral RNA biology and innate immunity\u201d and aims to further investigate the impact of RNA ribosylation on viral RNA translation efficiency, while also investigating Zinc Finger Antiviral Protein (ZAP\u2019s) role in sensing ribosylated RNAs to inhibit viral replication and initiate antiviral immune responses within the infected cell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Mark Heise (Professor, Genetics and M&amp;I) is the recipient of two new R21 awards from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28418,"featured_media":9368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[100],"class_list":["post-16919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-heise","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Heise Awarded Two New R21 Grants from NIAID | Department of Genetics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/heise-awarded-two-new-r21-grants-from-niaid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Heise Awarded Two New R21 Grants from NIAID | Department of Genetics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Mark Heise (Professor, Genetics and M&amp;I) is the recipient of two new R21 awards from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). \u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/heise-awarded-two-new-r21-grants-from-niaid\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Genetics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-13T13:44:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/481\/2020\/10\/Mark-Heise-e1601562562304.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"365\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"365\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jonathon Cornett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jonathon Cornett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/heise-awarded-two-new-r21-grants-from-niaid\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/heise-awarded-two-new-r21-grants-from-niaid\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jonathon Cornett\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/genetics\/#\/schema\/person\/0291e0ce388bbf007b03c591fc542716\"},\"headline\":\"Heise Awarded Two New R21 Grants from 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