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NIH Funding Opportunities | October 2024

Precision Medicine for Type 1 Diabetic Nephropathy (U01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) requests applications for Recruitment Sites (RS) to enroll adult and/or pediatric patients with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) with, or at high risk of, diabetic nephropathy into a longitudinal cohort study and perform protocol-based research kidney biopsies. These T1D RS will leverage the existing resources of the Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP). T1D RS will collaborate directly with the KPMP to obtain and evaluate kidney biopsies from participants, create a Kidney Tissue Atlas, define disease subgroups, and identify critical cells, interstitial components, pathways, and targets for novel therapies. Current KPMP RS are not eligible to apply.

Basic Research in Cancer Health Disparities (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) encourages grant applications from investigators interested in conducting basic, mechanistic research into the biological/genetic causes of cancer health disparities. These research project grants (R01) will support innovative studies designed to investigate biological/genetic bases of cancer health disparities, such as (1) mechanistic studies of biological factors associated with cancer health disparities, including those related to basic research in cancer biology or cancer prevention strategies, (2) the development and testing of new methodologies and models, and (3) secondary data analyses. This NOFO is also designed to aid and facilitate the growth of a nationwide cohort of scientists with a high level of basic research expertise in cancer health disparities research who can expand available resources and tools, such as biospecimens, patient derived models, and methods that are necessary to conduct basic research in cancer health disparities.

The Impact of Stressors on the Biological Mechanisms of Aging and Other Aging-Associated Outcomes in Experimental Model Systems (R61/R33 Clinical Trial Not allowed)

This notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) invites R61/R33 applications proposing research that incorporates exposures to a stressor(s) during the post-development period (“adulthood”) into studies of aging processes. Research proposed in the initial, exploratory (R61) phase will seek to determine whether exposure to a stressor(s) (e.g., physical, social, and/or environmental stressors of well-defined duration, intensity, and timing) during adulthood results in measurable changes in one or more of the hallmarks of aging. The second, developmental (R33) phase will then expand upon findings yielded in the R61 phase to determine the impacts of the stressor(s) on lifespan, healthspan, resilience, and/or interactions with other “input variables” such as genotype, diet, interventions, etc. Applicants can propose to employ in vitro systems; laboratory animals; or well-characterized wild, captive, free-ranging, or domesticated animal populations. Funded projects will receive up to two years of R61 support and may also receive up to three years of R33 support (contingent upon NIA’s determination of the success in achieving R61 milestones, NIA priorities, and availability of funds).

Advancing Healthcare for Older Adults from Populations that Experience Health Disparities (R01 - Clinical Trial Optional)

The purpose of this initiative is to advance the science and implementation of innovative multi-level health care research for older adults from populations that experience health disparities. The initiative will support research designed to (1) gain a better understanding of appropriate screening, diagnostic, and clinical care guidelines in a primary care setting, (2) explore shared decision-making that is needed to enhance care planning and patient agency between clinicians and care teams with the older adult and their caregiver(s), and (3) identify effective strategies for care coordination.

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the age-related changes in gait biomechanics and the impact on the increased metabolic cost of walking (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) invites R01 applications that propose human studies to better understand the mechanisms underlying compensatory gait, posture, and molecular changes that contribute to slower walking speed and increased metabolic cost of walking. This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) encourages interdisciplinary collaborations to design integrative approaches that explore interactions among multiple systems (e.g., skeletal, muscle, tendon, somatosensory, and central nervous). This NOFO also encourages innovative approaches such as computational modeling, imaging and sensor technologies, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to disentangle compensatory gait alterations with aging that contribute to increased metabolic cost of walking and fatigue. Areas of interest include: 1) mechanisms and effects of central nervous system changes; 2) neuromuscular changes; 3) skeletal muscle bioenergetics; 4) computational modeling and simulation; and 5) changes in tissue structure and function (e.g., muscle-tendon complex, extracellular matrix)).

ADRD Risk and Disease Following Nervous System Exposures at Biological Interfaces with the Environment (R01 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

There is increasing evidence that exposures from the external environment are important factors in overall human health in a variety of diseases and disorders including Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementia (ADRD). The NIH supports research on environmental risk factors (ERFs) for ADRD. This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) will support research projects that take this research further by determining how exogenous ERFs affect ADRD disease mechanisms and phenotypic outcomes through innervated human surfaces.  Exogenous ERFs include toxins and toxic chemicals, other pathogens, and other environmental exposures that reach innervated human surfaces.  These surfaces include the gut, mouth, throat, lungs, nasal passages, skin and other surfaces that interface with the outside world. The scope of this NOFO includes mechanistic research relevant to ADRD to determine the effect(s) of exogenous ERFs at nervous system biological interfaces. Human studies (No Clinical Trials Allowed) to identify exogenous ERFs at these biological interfaces are also allowed if the mechanistic influence of these exposures is also included in the research plan. This initiative will require team science between neuroscientists that have deep expertise in ADRD research with experts in environmental science with knowledge of toxicity to the nervous system.

Organs-on-a-Chip in Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (DOC-OoCs) (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

This funding opportunity encourages interdisciplinary research that advances the validation of organ-on-a-chip (OoC) towards disease modeling and pre-clinical efficacy studies in dental, oral, and craniofacial (DOC) research.  It is expected that outcomes will advance the use of validated reproducible three-dimensional microfluidic systems into the framework of clinical trials with demonstrated usefulness as new approach methodologies for DOC clinical research.  An essential feature will be a multidisciplinary approach including experts in DOC biology and clinical science, pathology, microfluidics, bioengineering, material science, computational biology, pharmacology, and biostatistics.

Strategies for Eliminating HIV Proteins (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

This purpose of this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) is to support the development of molecules that target HIV proteins or RNA for degradation or that interfere with the translation of HIV RNA into protein. This approach has the potential of eliminating HIV proteins that have been difficult to target via traditional drug discovery methodologies.