Notice Number: NOT-CA-16-017
Key Dates
Release Date: December 21, 2015
RFA-AI-16-006
Issued by
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Purpose
The purpose of this Notice is to inform potential applicants that the National Cancer (NCI) is participating, effective immediately, in RFA-AI-16-006, "U.S.-China Program for Biomedical Collaborative Research (R01)."
Reflecting NCI’s participation in this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), RFA-16-006 has been modified as defined below.
Part 1. Overview Information
The field "Components of Participating Organizations" and the field "Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Numbers" are modified to reflect NCI participation as shown below:
Components of Participating Organizations
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Office of AIDS Research (OAR)
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Numbers
93.855; 93.856; 93.242; 93.853; 93.393, 93.394, 93.395, 93.396
Part 2. Section I. Funding Opportunity Description
Additions to the text reflecting NCI participation are made under several headings as defined below.
Purpose
The text under "Purpose" is changed to read:
The purpose of the U.S.-China Program for Biomedical Collaborative Research is to stimulate collaborative basic, translational, and clinical research between United States (U.S.)-based researchers and Chinese researchers in the areas of allergy, immunology, and infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS and its co-morbidities and co-infections, cancer, mental health, and selected neurological disorders.
Scope of the Research Supported under this FOA
The original text under this heading is appended with the following text defining NCI-specific aspects:
NCI - Cancer:
Applications should be focused in the following areas:
- Genomics/Proteomics (e.g., collaborative research leveraging proteomic data publicly released by NCI’s Clinical Proteomics Tumor Analysis Consortium [CPTAC]) that has been analyzed as part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA));
- Nanotechnology (e.g., collaborative research focused on translating genomic targets into cancer therapeutics using nanotechnology and studies on structure-activity relationships in nanomaterials and their safety);
- Immunotherapy/ new immune inhibitory receptors/co-inhibitory molecules in tumor progress;
- Liver cancer studies as a result of carcinogen exposure, high fat diets, or high alcohol intake;
- DNA damage networks as a target for cancer cells; synthetic biology studies of engineered cells to study biological networks; and the effects of lipid addiction on tumor cells.
NCI Priorities. Within the areas of cancer, the specific priorities for this FOA include the following aspects:
Genomics/Epigenomics/Transcriptomics (including Epitranscriptomics)/Proteomics
- Mining/leveraging of TCGA data or proposed work to identify and understand genomic landscape of various cancer types understanding the role(s) of genes, non-coding RNAs, and gene products in tumorigenesis, progression, and metastasis.
- CPTAC coordinated effort to understand molecular basis of cancer by systematically identifying proteins that derive from alterations in cancer genomes.
Nanotechnology
- Collaborative applications that propose the use of nanotechnology to delineate cancer-associated pathways as a means to characterize and functionally validate cancer genomic findings in relevant cell and animal models
- Applications that propose the use of nanotechnology to enable cancer biomarker discovery and validation.
- Research directed towards uncovering structure-activity relationship in nanomaterials and correlation between nanomaterial properties and their safety profiles would also be supported by this FOA.
- Nanotechnology for immunotherapy application thay propose to characterize the physiological parameters of nanostructures targeting mononuclear phagocyte system, such as monocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells. Delivering agonists by targeting innate immune sensing pathways with nanotechnology to improve antigen presentation.
- Targeting immune regulatory cells (e.g. tumor-associated macrophages) to ameliorate tumor immunosuppressive microenvironment.
- Developing immunotherapy with nanotechnology to improve conventional therapies.
Cell engineering
- Approaches using synthetic biology to improve the understanding of biological networks and/or to develop live intelligent agents to test new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
DNA-damage network as a target in cancer cells
- Development of molecule tools and imaging and single-cell and single molecule technology to detect induction , expression and de-construction of molecular complexes that are formed in response to genotoxic therapy a variety of human cancers;
- Characterization and targeting of DNA repair in cancer stem cells and/or quiescent cancer cells in Go or G1;
- Establishing the role of DNA damage response communication with the microenvironment induced by cancer therapy (e.g., ionizing radiation) and effects such communication has on resistance to treatment and cancer progression in the face of high levels of DNA damage/replication stress;
- Exhaustive studies to determine synthetic lethal relationships related to cancer-cell defects in DNA repair or DNA replication for range of human cancers and grades.
Liver Cancer Research questions include:
- Does the cell of origin influence liver tumor type?
- Do liver cancer stem cells arise and are they found in all liver tumors?
- What is the role of the hepatic stellate cell in cancer progression?
- How do individual cell types/stromal components in the microenvironment influence tumor progression.
Lipid addiction of cancer cells
- The effects of dietary fat intake/obesity on the activation of fatty acid synthesis in cancer cells;
- The effects of lipid droplets on the induction of fibrosis.
Novel strategies of cancer immunotherapy
- Amplification/modification of immune effectors (e.g., with Chinese herbs);
- Recruitment of immune effectors to the tumor site;
- Targeting tumor stromal cells;
- Prevention of side effects.
- Antigen-based design of cellular effectors (e.g. CTL, NK);
- Cancer vaccine including DC vaccine;
- Immune molecule monitoring;
- New immune inhibitory receptors/co-inhibitory molecules in tumor progress.
Part 2. Section II. Award Information
The text under the heading " Funds Available and Anticipated Number of Awards" is updated as shown below (The update reflects NCI’s contribution of an additional $900,000 per year to support up to 4-5 awards at up to $200,000 per year):
Funds Available and Anticipated Number of Awards
Issuing IC and partner components intend to commit an estimated total of $4.5 million to fund approximately 20-23 awards.
Part 2. Section VII. Agency Contacts
The section is amended to add the following NCI contacts:
Scientific/Research Contact(s)
Paul Pearlman, PhD
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-5354
Email: paul.pearlman@nih.gov
Financial/Grants Management Contact(s)
Crystal Wolfrey
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-6277
Email: wolfreyc@mail.nih.gov
All other aspects of this FOA remain unchanged.
Inquiries
Please direct all inquiries to:
Scientific/Research Contact(s)
Paul Pearlman, PhD
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Telephone: 240-276-5354
Email: paul.pearlman@nih.gov
and Human Services (HHS)
