Notice Number: NOT-RM-17-030

Key Dates
Release Date: June 22, 2017

Issued by
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
Office of Strategic Coordination (Common Fund)

Purpose

The purpose of this Notice is to inform the research community that the Stem Cell Translation Laboratory (SCTL) at The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), part of the NIH Common Fund Regenerative Medicine Program (RMP), is seeking new collaborations to help achieve common goals in iPSC biology in a faster and more coordinated fashion. Interested investigators may propose to collaborate with SCTL on projects to bring induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology closer to clinical application, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine.

The SCTL is a state-of-the-art research facility within NCATS Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation that is dedicated to addressing the scientific and technological challenges in the iPSC field. The SCTL features advanced equipment and resources not available to most laboratories, such as quantitative, high-throughput, small molecule screening; robotic automation of cell culture workflows; multiscale assay development; 3-D bioprinting; and integrated platforms to profile gene and protein expression and measure functional endpoints in standard cultures, as well as on the single cell level.

Through the SCTL, NCATS will provide researchers across various disciplines and organizations with the ability to establish collaborations with the goal of moving promising protocols, assays, and iPSC-based technologies into future clinical applications. Working in a multidisciplinary collaborative team approach, NCATS SCTL scientists aim to:

• Establish detailed quality control (QC) standards to define pluripotency and differentiated cell types.
• Develop methods to assess molecular and cellular variations/signatures in cellular phenotypes derived from iPSCs
• Develop standardized methods to produce mature cells from iPSCs meeting QC and reproducibility standards.
• Discover, validate and disseminate small molecule reagents to replace expensive recombinant proteins, xenogenic material and undefined media components in cell differentiation protocols.

NCATS is particularly interested in possible collaborations with early stage scientists (tenure-track and recently tenured) from the NIH intramural and extramural communities (e.g., academic institutions, other government research agencies) and from industry/for-profit organizations (e.g., biotech companies, pharmaceutical organizations). Selected collaborators will work in partnership with SCTL staff to address specific biological and technical questions that currently impede the translation of iPSC research into clinical therapies. This is not a grant application, and no external funding is available. Rather, it is an opportunity to collaborate with NCATS scientists and have access to the expertise and resources of SCTL. Importantly, all protocols, small molecule compounds and other products generated by the SCTL will be disseminated to the scientific community.

Prospective collaborators are encouraged to contact SCTL for additional details about preparing a proposal: https://ncats.nih.gov/stemcell/work/proposal. Proposals will be assessed for scientific merit, technical feasibility, fit with available resources and alignment with SCTL programmatic goals.

Interested investigators may submit proposals to collaborate with SCTL throughout the year. Proposals will be accepted on July 1, November 1, and March 1. Peer-review of submitted proposals will be held in August, December, and April of each year.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Ilyas Singe , M.D., Ph.D.
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)
Telephone: 301-217-5725
Email: ilyas.singec@nih.gov