Funding News - NINDS Seeks Applications for Bioengineering Nanotechnology Research

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), the National Eye Institute (NEI), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) invite applications for small business innovation research (SBIR) projects on nanotechnologies useful to biomedicine.

Nanotechnology is the creation of functional materials, devices, and systems through control of matter at the scale of 1 to 100 nanometers, and the exploitation of novel properties and phenomena at the same scale. It is emerging as a field critical for enabling essential breakthroughs that may have tremendous biomedical potential.

Examples of potential research areas include studies on: nanoplumbing components such as valves, microfluidic channels, and motors; logic circuits based on quantum dots; development and improvement of techniques based on new principles for probing biological properties and phenomena not well understood at the nanometer scale and for characterizing nanoscale materials; development of fluorescent probes at the nanometer scale for monitoring biochemical processes on the surface and inside a cell in health and disease; creation of "smart" nanostructured biocompatible materials; development of nanofabricated barriers to prevent rejection of implantable materials; development of nanoparticles and nanospheres that enable controlled release of therapeutic agents, antibodies, genes, and vaccines into targeted cells; and development of sensor technologies for detection and analysis of biologically relevant molecular and physical targets in samples from blood, saliva, and other body fluids, or for use in the research laboratory, clinical specimens, and the living body.

For more information, potential applicants should contact Dr. William Heetderks, Repair and Plasticity Cluster, NINDS, Neuroscience Center, 6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 2207, Bethesda, MD 20892; telephone: (301) 496-1447; fax: (301) 402-1501; e-mail: heet@nih.gov.