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NIAID
NIAID encourages Small Business applications that focus on asthma and allergies, autoimmune disease, the immune system, radiation exposure, and transplantation.
The following topics from the Division of Allergy, Immunology, and Transplantation (DAIT) are NIAID Small Business Program high-priority areas of interest. If you do not see your allergy-, immunology-, or transplantation-related topic here, your funding application will still be reviewed, but it may not be prioritized.
If you have questions about these research topics or seek advice on the application process, please contact the specific subject matter experts listed below. You may contact Michael Minnicozzi with questions if a subject matter expert is not listed.
Asthma and Allergies
| Topics | Areas of Interest | Subject Matter Experts |
|---|---|---|
| Detection | Novel approaches for detecting infants at risk for developing asthma and other allergic diseases. | Alkis Togias, Allergy, Asthma, and Airway Biology Branch |
| Diagnosis | Developing food allergy diagnostic testing that can replace oral food challenges. | Adora Lin, Allergy, Asthma, and Airway Biology Branch |
| New forms of allergen immunotherapy for food allergies, allergic rhinitis, and asthma | Novel therapies that offer improved efficacy, safety, and a faster induction of clinical tolerance (i.e., the state where the effect of immunotherapy remains after therapy is discontinued). | Patty Fulkerson, Food Allergy, Atopic Dermatitis, and Allergic Mechanisms Section |
| Reagents and animal models | Development of new reagents and non-murine animal models for allergy research. | Michael Minnicozzi |
Autoimmune Disease
| Topics | Areas of Interest | Subject Matter Experts |
|---|---|---|
| Biomarkers | Biomarkers to measure risk, disease activity, and therapeutic response in autoimmune diseases. | Mireia Guerau |
| Diagnostic criteria | Standardized validated diagnostic criteria and outcome measures for autoimmune diseases correlated with disease activity. | Jeffrey Rice |
| High-throughput (HTP) assays | HTP assay of T-cell activity in autoimmune diseases. | Stacy Ferguson |
| Treatments | Innovative treatments for autoimmune diseases. | Stacy Ferguson |
Immune System
| Topics | Areas of Interest | Subject Matter Experts |
|---|---|---|
| Assays | Single-cell and other sample-sparing assays for the study of human immunology. | Halonna Kelly; Timothy Gondre-Lewis |
| Biomarkers | Biomarkers of host immune defense. | Alison Deckhut Augustine |
| Mucosal immunity | Biomarkers to measure mucosal inflammation and response to therapy. | Deborah Hodge |
| Immunotherapeutic antibodies | Immunotherapeutic antibodies. | Stacy Ferguson |
| Reagents for immunological analysis of non-mammalian and underrepresented mammalian models | Development and validation of reagents (e.g., antibodies, proteins, molecular probes) for the characterization of immune cells and their responses—targeted species include non-mammalian models (e.g., arthropods, amphibians, fish, nematodes, marine echinoids) and underrepresented mammalian models (e.g., guinea pig, ferret, cotton rat, bat, pig, marmoset). | Joy Liu |
| Vaccine adjuvants | Development of novel vaccine adjuvants. | Wolfgang Leitner |
Radiation Exposure
| Topics | Areas of Interest | Subject Matter Experts |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | Identification of radiation exposure biomarkers and development of new biodosimetry methods and devices for triage of radiation-exposed people. | Merriline Satyamitra |
| Mitigation and treatment | Development of medical countermeasures to protect against, mitigate, and treat the short- and long-term effects of radiation exposure due to terrorist attack. | Andrea DiCarlo-Cohen |
| Removal of internal contamination | Development of novel or improved decorporation agents to remove radionuclides from the body following accidental inhalation, ingestion, or wound entry. | David Cassatt |
Transplantation
| Topics | Areas of Interest | Subject Matter Experts |
|---|---|---|
| Immunomodulatory agents and biomarkers | Immunomodulatory agents to prevent graft rejection and biomarkers to predict transplantation outcomes. | Nancy Bridges |
| Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) typing | Methods and analysis tools to facilitate HTP, high resolution MHC typing in humans and nonhuman primates. |