January 2012 DAIT Council-Approved Concepts
Concepts represent early planning stages for program announcements, request for applications, or solicitations for Council's input. If NIAID publishes an initiative from one of these concepts, we link to it below. To find initiatives, go to the Opportunities and Announcements portal.
NB: Council approval does not guarantee that a concept will become an initiative.
Table of Contents
Collaborative Network for Clinical Research on Immune Tolerance
For the published request for applications, see the November 5, 2012, Guide announcement.
Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence
For the published requests for applications, see the January 15, 2013, Guide announcements, Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence, Clinical Research Program and Autoimmunity Centers of Excellence, Basic Research Program.
Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation
Request for Applications
Contact: Nancy Bridges
Objective: This initiative will support clinical trials in organ or cellular transplantation with associated studies of immune mechanism. The goal of this research is to improve the outcome of organ transplantation by (1) evaluating innovative therapies that will increase graft survival without medication-induced injury; (2) identifying and validating biomarkers of immune activation, immune quiescence, and pending graft injury in urine, blood, or tissue biopsies that will allow individualization and optimization of anti-rejection therapy; and (3) increasing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying allograft rejection and injury.
Description: This initiative will support multicenter clinical trials with associated studies of immune mechanism in heart, lung, kidney, liver, and intestinal transplantation. Clinical trials of nonhematopoietic cellular transplantation as replacement therapies are included, as are those of transplantation of bone marrow or mesenchymal stem cells, or of immunologically active cells as adjuncts to organ transplantation. Studies of hematopoietic cell transplantation and of pancreatic islet transplantation are excluded.
This is a renewal of RFA-AI-08-015; the inclusion of cellular therapies is an expansion of that RFA.
Adjuvant Discovery Program
For the published broad agency announcement, see the May 10, 2013, solicitation.
Inner City Asthma Consortium
Request for Applications
Contact: Alkis Togias
Objective:
- Develop allergen immunotherapies to mitigate and/or prevent the effects of inner city specific allergens on asthma.
- Continue the unique inner city asthma birth cohort URECA through adolescence, specifically at least through 15 years of age.
- Investigate the role of the host (GI, respiratory) and home microbiome in inner city asthma.
- Develop and implement innovative, phenotype-specific, immunomodulatory clinical trials for the treatment and/or prevention of inner city asthma.
- Investigate the pathogenesis and mechanism of specific inner city asthma phenotypes.
Description:
- Although there is a change in the funding mechanism, this initiative is considered a renewal of the current Inner City Asthma Consortium contract.
- Under this award a scientific and administrative center will be created. This center will establish subcontracts with clinical and basic science sites to perform clinical trials, clinical studies, and related mechanistic research.
- The number of clinical sites will be reduced to six or seven compared to the current contract award (eight or nine sites).