Current NIAID Biodefense Research Funding Opportunities
Target Identification
Focus: Research aimed at developing tools to control epidemic influenza and the increasing threat of pandemic influenza is one of NIAID's highest priorities. Areas of high priority include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Development of improved drugs against influenza, including structure/function studies of influenza virus proteins, with the goal of identifying new therapeutic targets.
- The development of novel influenza vaccines and vaccination strategies. Novel approaches might include developing and evaluating new vaccine formulations, adjuvants, immune response stimulators, protective T-cell and antibody epitopes, new routes of delivery, common epitope vaccines, and alternatives to egg-based vaccine production technologies.
- The development of sensitive, specific, and rapid clinical diagnostic tests for influenza.
- Evaluation of the immune response to infection and/or vaccination, including cell-mediated and innate immunity.
- Determination of the molecular basis of virulence of influenza viruses in humans and animals.
- Evaluation of the molecular and/or environmental factors that influence the transmission of influenza viruses, including drug-resistant strains.
- Studies on the evolution and emergence of influenza viruses, including the identification of factors that affect influenza host-range and virulence.
- Virologic and serologic surveillance studies of the distribution of influenza viruses with pandemic potential in animal populations and in humans at the human/animal interface.
back to top