Research at Johns Hopkins Medicine

The announcement and guidelines for the FY 2008 NIH National Center for Research Resources Shared Instrumentation Grant ("SIG") Program are available at the following link: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-08-036.html. The appropriate forms must be downloaded from Grants.gov in order to insure that the correct version of the PureEdge forms (version 2A) is being used.

Please note that the application deadline is Monday, March 24, 2008. Applications are limited to instruments that cost at least $100,000 per instrument or integrated instrument system. The maximum award under the program is $500,000. NCRR intends to fund approximately 125 new awards. The earliest anticipated start date is April 1, 2009. Funding decisions will be based on scientific merit, availability of funds, and relevance of program priorities.

The University is eligible to submit more than one application provided that each is for a different type of equipment. Types of instruments supported include confocal and electron microscopes, biomedical imagers, mass spectrometers, DNA sequencers, biosensors, cell sorters and NMR spectrometers, among others. To be eligible, a minimum of three major users must be Principal Investigators on NIH peer reviewed research grants at the time of application and award.

School of Medicine faculty need to advise Gayle Mowbray Walters (email: gmwalters@jhmi.edu; 7-0702) in Research Administration of your interest in applying for this program and the type of equipment no later than Friday, February 1, 2008, so that we can determine if more than one group wants to apply for the same type of equipment. She can also provide a list of equipment previously awarded under the SIG program. Installation, alterations, renovations, and operating costs must be supported by departmental funds existing at the time of proposal. Faculty from other divisions of the University should contact their designated ORA representative. If more than one division of the University wishes to apply for the same kind of instrumentation, a letter from the Vice Provost for Research will be drafted by the applicant PIs to document lack of overlap/duplication.

Large-scale sharing of needed instruments by sizable groups of PHS peer-review funded researchers is important for the application to succeed. Duplication of instruments previously awarded under this program will weaken the review score unless a current, unmet need is well documented. Thank you for considering this important grant program.

NIH is calling for applications for 2008 NIH Director's Pioneer Awards and New Innovator Awards. Both programs are part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research and support exceptionally creative scientists who take highly innovative approaches to major challenges in biomedical or behavioral research.

Pioneer Awards provide $2.5 million in direct costs over 5 years and are open to scientists at any career stage. New Innovator Awards provide $1.5 million in direct costs over the same period and are for new investigators who have not received an NIH regular research (R01) or similar grant.

NIH expects to make 5 to 10 Pioneer Awards and up to 24 New Innovator Awards in September 2008.

Women and members of groups that are underrepresented in NIH research areas are encouraged to apply.

Funding is available to support multidisciplinary research in prostate cancer through the Patrick C. Walsh Prostate Cancer Research Fund. Awards of a maximum of $75,000 for up to 2 years are available to fund career development and developmental research programs (pilot projects). New Ideas Encouraged!

This FOA invites applications for projects that will examine, through molecular approaches, the relationship between changes in the human microbiome and human health and disease. This FOA will use the UH2/UH3 cooperative agreement mechanisms to support the demonstration project awards.

The program will be funded in two phases, as allowed by this mechanism. The initial one-year pilot phase (UH2) will allow investigators to procure samples and generate data that will be used to support the scale-up phase (UH3), which will be awarded after administrative review to those projects that have the most promise to demonstrate whether or not the human microbiome plays an important role in human health and disease.

The total amount of funds available for these awards is approximately $4million total costs for the UH2 in FY 09 and $24.3 million for the UH3 in FY 10-12. Up to 10 UH2 and 5 UH3 awards are anticipated from this solicitation. Letters of intent must be submitted by April 22, 2008 and the application deadline is May 22, 2008. To view the complete announcement, click here: http://www.grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-08-012.html.

The goal of this initiative is to create a center (or centers) to 1) evaluate new monoclonal antibodies (mABs) to neurodevelopmental antigens using multiple model systems and 2) provide detailed information for use of these reagents to the research community.

Some of the most powerful tools in understanding nervous system development are antibodies that monitor the expression of key developmental proteins. Accordingly, one of the most compelling needs within the community is greater access to well-validated mABs. As an initial step to address this need, the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research (subsequently referred to as the Blueprint) is currently funding the targeted creation and distribution of a large number of high quality monoclonal antibodies via the Blueprint Resource Antibodies Initiative for Neurodevelopment (BRAINdev) in partnership with the UC Davis/NINDS/NIMH NeuroMab Facility (www.neuromab.org).

To fulfill the evaluation portion of this plan, this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) solicits applications directed toward the creation of a center (or centers) to perform further examination of mABs immunoreactivity in the developing central and peripheral nervous systems of multiple model systems. This announcement specifically requests the creation of antibody evaluation centers which will, in total, determine the ability of antibodies to recognize their corresponding antigen during development in the following organisms: fruit fly (D. melanogaster), nematode (C. elegans), zebrafish (D. rerio), mouse (M. musculus), chick (G. gallus), frog (X. laevis and X. tropicalis), rat (R. norvegicus), rhesus monkey (M. mulatta) and human (H. sapiens).

Individual centers will establish experimental conditions for antibody use during development, including immunoblotting, and immunohistochemistry in at least five species, as well as provide these data to the neurodevelopment community. This FOA uses the Resource-Related Research Projects-Cooperative Agreement (U24) award mechanism. The Blueprint is a framework to enhance cooperative activities among the NIH Office of the Director and 15 NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) that support research on the central and peripheral nervous systems.

In fiscal year 2008, the Blueprint is emphasizing neural development. The participating Blueprint organizations intend to commit $1,200,000 over a two-year period to fund 1 to 3 applications in response to this FOA. Letters of intent must be received by January 15, 2008 and the application deadline is February 15, 2008. To view this complete announcement, click here: http://www.grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-NS-08-
005.html

Human Pluripotent Stem Cell (hPSC) Research Using Non-Embryonic Sources (R01 and R21)

This funding opportunity encourages new research applications proposing research on hPSCs from non-embryonic sources.

This FOA addresses the Executive Order issued by President George W. Bush on June 20, 2007, requiring that the Secretary of Health and Human Services conduct and support research on the isolation, derivation, production, and testing of stem cells that are capable of producing all or almost all of the cell types of the developing body and may result in improved understanding of or treatments for diseases and other adverse
health conditions, but are derived without creating a human embryo for research purposes or destroying, discarding, or subjecting to harm a human embryo.

This FOA will utilize the NIH Research Project Grant (R01) award mechanism and runs in parallel with an FOA of identical scientific scope, PA-08-044, that encourages applications under the NIH Exploratory/Developmental (R21) grant award mechanism.

This funding opportunity (FOA) is aimed at enhancing nanoscience and nanotechnology research focused on problems in biology and medicine. Nanoscience and nanotechnology refer to research and development on the understanding and control of matter at a length scale of approximately 1- 100 nanometers, where novel properties and functions occur because of the size.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will utilize the R01 grant mechanism and runs in parallel with a FOA of identical scientific scope PA-08-053, that solicits applications under the R21 mechanism. The earliest an R01 application may be submitted is February 5th and the earliest an R21 application may be submitted is January 16th. Standard dates apply for application submission. The R01 announcement can be found here: http://www.grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-
08-052.html. The R21 announcement can be found here: http://www.grants.nih.gov/
grants/guide/pa-files/PA-08-053.html.

Administrative Supplements for High-Quality Low-Cost Monoclonal Antibodies for Studies of the Nervous System

This announcement details an administrative supplement program of $600,000 in Fiscal Year 2008 to provide funds to NINDS, NIMH, NIDCD or NIAAA-funded research projects for collaboration with the UC Davis NeuroMab Facility (www.neuromab.org). The purpose of this program is to facilitate production of new monoclonal antibodies (NeuroMabs) to targets with high relevance to nervous system studies. The NeuroMab Facility was established to provide inexpensive, carefully verified monoclonal antibodies to proteins of the mammalian nervous system. For investigator-initiated antibody requests, the facility enters into a collaborative partnership in which the requesting investigator can provide expertise and reagents necessary for the project. The current
announcement is for supplements to NINDS, NIMH, NIDCD or NIAAA-funded projects ($5K-$50K per project) for design and generation of reagents for antibody production and validation, such as immunogens (e.g., fusion protein cDNA constructs and purified fusion proteins), and/or tagged cDNA expression vectors for antibody screening. A request may include providing reagents for multiple targets and can include minor personnel costs. No requests for equipment will be considered. Investigators with Mentored Career Development (K01, K08, K23, K25 or K99/R00), Research Scientist (K02 or K24), Research Project (R01 or U01), Academic Research Enhancement (R15), Exploratory/ Developmental (R21), Phase II SBIR (R44 or U44), Program Project (P01), Developing Center (P20), Institutional Center Core (P30), Research Resource (U24), or Specialized Center (P50 or U54) grants are eligible to apply.

Investigators are strongly encouraged to contact the NeuroMab Facility (neuromab@
ucdavis.edu) in advance of submitting a supplement request for preliminary discussions on immunogens and other reagents needed for screening and specificity testing. Applications must be received on or before March 21, 2008.


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