Quicktab: T Cell Reagent Research for the Study of Allergic Diseases

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AI-16-027.html

The goal of this FOA is to continue NIAID's suport of multidisciplinary and collaborative research programs that focus on identifying, characterizing and validating allergen T cell epitopes during the development, progression, or immunotherapeutic management of allergic disease. For the purpose of this FOA, epitope validation is defined as the ability to track the numbers and functions of epitope-specific T cells during various clinical stages and to associate these parameters with careful phenotypic or endotypic characterization. These programs should include state of the art techniques to explore epitope-specific T-cell repertoires and to illuminate their phenotypes, their function and their contribution to allergen-specific T cell memory. New T cell epitope identification should be limited to allergens that have not been previously extensively examined and which are of importance in allergic diseases with high public health impact (e.g., milk, mouse and fungal antigens).

This FOA seeks applications with projects that are highly synergistic and relate to a central theme relevant to the goals described above.  All projects in an application must focus on human disease and can involve subjects with allergic rhinitis, asthma, or food allergy who will be carefully phenotyped.  In addition or alternatively, the application can utilize human specimens obtained from outside studies provided that these studies have conducted clinical phenotyping of high quality and that all this information is readily available to the applicant investigators. Applicants are encouraged to collaborate with funded clinical networks that can supply high quality clinical information and have the ability to prospectively follow large numbers of participants with various phenotypic characteristics.  NIAID requires that all of the proposed research in each application meets the definition of NIH clinical (human subjects) research and clearly defines the central role of T cell epitope analyses in the study hypothesis, design, and mechanistic assays.  For the NIH definition of clinical (human subjects) research, please refer to the NIH Office of Extramural Research Human Subjects website. Healthy non-allergic subjects may be included in the proposed clinical studies as controls. This FOA may also support new phase I and small-scale phase II clinical trials. If proposed, these clinical trials must focus on immune-based therapies and/or interventions involving experimental allergen exposure.

Deadlines and Internal Application

Internal Expression of Interest Deadline: 11:59pm MST October 11, 2016

NIH Letter of Intent Deadline: February 3, 2017

NIH Application Due Date: March 3, 2017

Eligibility

Any individual(s) with the skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to carry out the proposed research as the Program Director(s)/Principal Investigator(s) (PD(s)/PI(s)) is invited to work with his/her organization to develop an application for support. Individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups as well as individuals with disabilities are always encouraged to apply for NIH support.

For institutions/organizations proposing multiple PDs/PIs, visit the Multiple Program Director/Principal Investigator Policy and submission details in the Senior/Key Person Profile (Expanded) Component of the SF424 (R&R) Application Guide.

Limited Submission Guidelines

Only one application per institution (normally identified by having a unique DUNS number or NIH IPF number) is allowed. 

The NIH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under review at the same time.  This means that the NIH will not accept:

• A new (A0) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of an overlapping new (A0) or resubmission (A1) application.
• A  resubmission (A1) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of the previous new (A0) application.
• An application that has substantial overlap with another application pending appeal of initial peer review (see NOT-OD-11-101).