Preclinical Models of Infectious Disease

This contract program supports the development and refinement of animal models and animal replacement technologies and provides in vivo preclinical testing services, ranging from screening and proof-of-concept to GLP efficacy studies.

Main Areas of Focus

  • To provide in vivo product testing for researchers who have developed promising products, but who lack either the resources or expertise needed to perform that testing in animal models.
  • To support the development and refinement of models and resources for infectious diseases.

Support Services

This program provides a central resource for the following services to facilitate product development and infectious disease research:

  1. Development and refinement of animal models
  2. In vivo screening
  3. Efficacy testing, including GLP if warranted
  4. Supplying model-derived reagents

Available models include:

  • Traditional small laboratory animals (e.g., mice, hamsters, rats, guinea pigs, hamsters, ferrets, cotton rats, and rabbits)
  • Non-human primates (e.g., baboons, macaques, and marmosets)
  • Nontraditional animals, such as arthropods, snails and other invertebrates, deer, wild rodents, goats, swine, horses, and cattle
  • Animal replacement models, such as tissue chips or organoid cultures

Who Can Use This Resource

  • Must be an investigator in academia, a not-for-profit organization, industry, or government worldwide
  • Need not be a grantee of NIAID or another National Institutes of Health Institute or Center
  • Must have appropriate preliminary data to support advancing the product to be evaluated to the requested stage of the product development pathway

NOTE: Resources are intended to fill critical gaps and are not to be the sole source of product development support. Preliminary data to support program participation are required.

How To Get Started

Step 1 – Discuss the potential request informally

Please contact pcmid@mail.nih.gov to reach the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Disease (DMID). Staff will follow up to discuss your preliminary data and the suitability of your proposed studies for support. Your request will be evaluated as follows:

  1. Are the proposed studies within the DMID/NIAID mission?
  2. Are the proposed studies within the scope of and/or technology provided by awarded contracts?
  3. Are a sufficient quality and/or quantity of product available?
  4. Are the proposed studies in compliance with animal welfare regulations?
  5. Is the proposed work supported by other funding sources/available from other sources?
  6. Has the requestor previously used DMID resources for assessment of the same or similar product? (Repeat use of DMID resources may be undertaken with strong justification.)
  7. Are preliminary data adequate to support the request to advance the product to the next step in the product development pathway?
  8. What is the likelihood that services will contribute significantly to the eventual development and/or evaluation of a product of high quality?
  9. What is the purported public health impact?
  10. What improvements in health benefits are offered beyond current measure(s)?
  11. Does the requestor have a plan advancing the product beyond completion of the services requested?

Informal requests are reviewed and approved at the branch/office level, where they are considered in relation to branch/office priorities.

Step 2 – Submit a formal proposal (by invitation only)

  • If your proposal is judged to be promising, DMID staff will invite you to submit a formal request for approval through the DMID Preclinical Services for Researchers site.
  • DMID staff will provide instructions for establishing the NIH account required to access this site, instructions for submitting your request, and a brief description of what to expect next.
  • Formal requests are reviewed and approved by the DMID senior leadership, where they are considered in relation to division priorities.

Requestor Requirements

  • Requestors must update DMID staff on all on-going studies and development status involving submitted product(s)
  • Requestors must also provide abstracts, draft publications, press releases, and other materials prior to submission to journals, conferences, or other public release of information
  • Communications should acknowledge the role that access to preclinical services provided by the Pre-clinical Models of Infectious Diseases program played in furthering the research being reported

Assurance to Requestors

  • A Non-Clinical Evaluation Agreement (NCEA), with an attached Service Request Form (SRF), between NIAID and the requestor shall be required. The NCEA protects the requestor’s intellectual property (IP) and ensures confidentiality. The contract establishes confidentiality for all information flowing from NIAID to the contractor. Therefore, additional material transfer agreements between the requestor and the contractor are not needed.
  • All information provided to the contractor will be treated as confidential

Contact Information

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