Funding News - Applications for High Throughput Molecular Screening Assay Development Requested

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) requests grant applications for research on high throughput molecular screening assay development.

This request for applications (RFA) is an NIH Roadmap Initiative. The NIH Roadmap is an innovative approach to accelerate fundamental discovery and translate that knowledge into effective prevention strategies and new treatments. All NIH institutes and centers participate in Roadmap Initiatives.*

High throughput molecular screening is the automated, simultaneous testing of thousands of distinct chemical compounds in models of biological mechanisms or disease. The goal of this RFA is to initiate a continuously evolving stream of scientifically and technologically outstanding assays that can be automated and used for screening at the molecular libraries screening centers. It is open to all areas of biological and biomedical research, with the goal of providing new ways to explore the functions of major components of the cell.

This RFA will support the development of innovative assays for use in both basic research and therapeutics development programs, with an emphasis on novelty of approach to biology or disease. Appropriate assays might include but are not limited to: biochemical or cell-based assays of activity or interaction involving proteins and/or other biological molecules; assays of cellular or molecular phenotypes; assays using model organisms such as yeast or C. elegans; assays involving mutant proteins associated with disease; and modulation of expression of genes of interest, including effects on transcription, translation, or RNA splicing.

APPLICATION RECEIPT DATE: March 26, 2004.

For more information, potential applicants should contact Dr. Jill Heemskerk, Program Director, Technology Development Cluster, Molecular Library Assays, NINDS, Neuroscience Center, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 2229, Bethesda, MD 20892; telephone: 301-496-1779; fax: 301-402-1501; e-mail: assays@mail.nih.gov.

*For a more detailed description of this RFA, please visit the NIH web site at: http://grants2.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-RM-04-012.html. For more information on the NIH Roadmap, please visit the website at: http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/.