Notice of Intent to Publish a Funding Opportunity Announcement for Data Analysis and Coordination Center for the PsychENCODE Consortium (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Key Dates

None

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) intends to promote a new initiative by publishing a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to solicit applications for a Data Analysis and Coordination Center for PsychENCODE, a NIMH consortium for the discovery and characterization of human-specific non-coding functional genomic elements across brain regions, cell types, and developmental time periods and their role(s) in the molecular pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders. The Center will support the integration, harmonization, analysis, management, and dissemination of PsychENCODE Consortium data.

This Notice is being provided to allow potential applicants sufficient time to develop collaborations and responsive projects.

The NOFO is expected to be published in Summer 2023 with an expected application due date in Summer 2023.

This NOFO will utilize the U24 activity code. Details of the planned NOFO are provided below.

This Notice encourages investigators who are members of the PsychENCODE Consortium to begin planning for the upcoming NOFO. This limited competition solicitation will be open to the PsychENCODE Consortium member institutions currently or previously funded by PAR-17-257 or PAR-17-258.

Background

Recent advances in human genetics are reshaping our understanding of the genetic architecture of mental disorders and their molecular pathophysiology. We now have many significant replicable genetic signals associated with all major mental disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. Many of the genetic signals contributing to disease risk are enriched in non-coding regulatory regions of the human genome. Additionally, psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder, are generally thought to result from dysfunction of neuronal circuitry involving multiple cortical and subcortical regions with disparate temporal, spatial, and cell type-specific etiologies. However, there are little or no data regarding network regulation of transcripts that span multiple developmental time periods, brain regions, and/or cell types in psychiatric disorders and associated dimensional and behavioral phenotypes. To gain insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders, it is critical to generate, integrate, and analyze data from multiple sets of comprehensive molecular profiles across brain areas and cell types in both diseased and healthy control brains. In addition, integrative multi-level analyses of multi-modal data that contains distinct biological information may facilitate the identification and prioritization of potential genetic targets and lead to drug discovery for these psychiatric disorders.

The PsychENCODE Consortium represents the largest integrative and collaborative effort in the field, with the common goal of mapping genomic regulatory elements on multiple genomic scales and developing molecular models of disease. Eventually, the PsychENCODE aims to generate spatio-temporal reference maps of functional genomic elements affecting human brain function across multiple cellular contexts and developmental time periods and create a public resource of multidimensional genomic data. The PsychENCODE members are also collaborating with the Genotype-Tissue Expression project (GTEx), the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE), the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN), and other related consortia to enhance the power and impact of these analyses.

Key to the Consortium's success in advancing knowledge of regulatory mechanisms and molecular networks underlying brain development, function, and dysfunction in psychiatric disorders is the synthesis of efforts across individual PsychENCODE groups. Generating and analyzing integrated Consortium-wide datasets produces more robust results than could be achieved by any single group.

Research Objectives

This NOFO will support a Data Analysis and Coordination Center (DACC) for the PsychENCODE Consortium. The Center will continue to support the integration, harmonization, analysis, and coordination of Consortium data to further the Consortium's goal of discovering and characterizing the full spectrum of non-coding functional genomic elements across brain regions, cell types, and developmental time periods to elucidate their role(s) in the molecular pathophysiology of mental illness. The recipient of this NOFO will become a member of the PsychENCODE Consortium.

It is expected that DACC activities include but are not limited to:

• Uniformly processing PsychENCODE datasets and generating integrated joint datasets
• Coordinating and conducting analyses of the joint data with PsychENCODE Consortium members
• Integrating data from similar or complementary public resources (i.e., BICAN, dGTEx) with PsychENCODE data
• Tracking data submissions/requirements from PsychENCODE Consortium funded grants
• Curating data and data assets before distribution to PsychENCODE Consortium members and the broader research community
• Supporting PsychENCODE Consortium members in fulfilling manuscript data access requirements.
• Liaising with the NIMH Data Archive (NDA) to facilitate depositing processed data, annotations, and other products into relevant data archives or storage locations.
• Supporting communication and coordination of Consortium activities such as virtual meetings.
• Facilitating an annual in-person Consortium meeting.

Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to consult with NIMH staff as early as possible when developing plans for an application. This early contact will provide an opportunity to clarify NIH policies and guidelines and help to identify whether the proposed project is consistent with NIMH program priorities and NOFO goals.

Funding Information

Public/State Controlled Institution of Higher Education
Private Institution of Higher Education
Nonprofit with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institution of Higher Education)
Small Business
For-Profit Organization (Other than Small Business)
State Government
Indian/Native American Tribally Designated Organization (Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
Regional Organization
Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government

Applications are not being solicited at this time.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Amanda J. Price, Ph.D.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Telephone: 301-435-5224
Email: amanda.price@nih.gov