Funding News - Applications on Sex-Based Differences in the Immune Response Requested

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH), and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society request applications to identify, characterize, and define differences in the immune response between males and females.

The objective of this request for applications (RFA) is to support multidisciplinary research on sex-based differences in immune responses that may be important in autoimmune diseases (including multiple sclerosis, rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and systemic sclerosis, as well as other immune-mediated diseases) and the underlying mechanisms and clinical significance of such differences.

Areas of potential research include studies of: mechanisms that underlie sex-based differences in susceptibility to and severity of autoimmunity, infectious diseases, or other immune-mediated diseases; molecular basis for differences between males and females in the immune response, including the adaptive, innate, and mucosal immune systems; differences between males and females in adaptive immune responses; differences in triggering or response mechanisms in innate immunity that may be responsible for the sexual dimorphism observed in response to pathogens; differences in the immune response to infections of the central and peripheral nervous systems; mechanisms of sex hormone regulation of the immune response in normal and disease states in males and females; the effect of pregnancy on the immune response and identification of postpartum changes that are responsible for either protection from or provocation of autoimmunity; mechanisms of micochimerism in the etiopathogenesis of autoimmune disease; and the genetic basis for sex differences in autoimmunity.

APPLICATION RECEIPT DATE: July 10, 2001.

For more information, potential applicants should contact Dr. A.P. Kerza-Kwiatecki, Neural Environment Cluster, NINDS, Neuroscience Center, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 2115, Bethesda, MD 20892; telephone: (301) 496-1431; fax: (301) 402-2060; e-mail: ak45w@nih.gov.

For a more detailed description of this RFA, please visit the web site at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AI-01-005.html.