This Funding Opportunity Announcement invites applications to form Transporter Elucidation Centers (TECs) as part of a Transporter Elucidation Network (TEN). TECs funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) will address key knowledge gaps in functional transport of nutrients and drugs to the developing fetus and infant through a focus on human placenta, lactating mammary gland, and developing gut.
Donor Name: National Institutes of Health
State: All States
County: All Counties
Territory: American Samoa, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and U.S. Virgin Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/30/2022
Size of the Grant: $750,000
Grant Duration: 5 years
Details:
The overarching goals of the Transporter Elucidation Network are to elucidate novel roles for transporter proteins (e.g., solute carrier (SLC) and ATP-binding cassette (ABC) families) and to validate existing and emerging models of their functional roles across and within the human organism. The objective of awards made to this Funding Opportunity Announcement will be to improve their understanding of the functional transport of nutrients and drugs that are directly relevant to the developing fetus and infant. This will be accomplished via a focus on the human placenta, lactating mammary gland, developing gut, and/or blood brain barrier.
Objectives and Scope of the Centers
Two important aspects of fully understanding the functional transport of nutrients, drugs, etc. within human cells and tissues are (A) having a detailed understanding of transporter genes and their expressed protein variants’ functions and ligands and (B) elucidating and validating the functional role of transporter proteins within specific tissues and cell types. The first aspect can be enabled by recent advances in bio- and chem-informatics approaches, many of which are now powered by artificial intelligence approaches, coupled with an increased technical capacity for small molecule screening and molecular structural determination. For the second aspect, ‘omics technologies that can be applied to ex vivo human tissues and engineered biomimetic organoid/chip systems provide new opportunities for resolving function and membrane localization of transporters in native biological contexts.
Examples of types of projects to be undertaken by a Transporter Elucidation Center include, but are not limited to:
- The use of mass spectrometric techniques to measure transporter protein and nutrient levels in various layers of the human placenta at different developmental stages;
- Use of cryo-EM to determine previously unobtainable transporter protein structures to facilitate computational docking models or assays;
- Deorphanizing transporters through coupling of computational and high throughput experimental approaches to uncover endogenous ligands and solutes;
- Proteomic and metabolomic characterization of cells isolated from human milk (i.e., liquid biopsies);
- Use of a wide range of biologically relevant small molecules labeled with stable isotopes to study relative transporter affinity and fluxomics;
- Fluxomic studies in human iPSC-derived gastrointestinal organoids at various stages of development.
Funding Information
- Application budgets are limited to $750,000 in direct costs (excluding consortium F&A) per year and need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.
- The maximum project period is 5 years.
Eligibility Criteria
- Higher Education Institutions
- Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
- Private Institutions of Higher Education
- The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education:
- Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education
- Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- For-Profit Organizations
- Small Businesses
- For-Profit Organizations (Other than Small Businesses)
- Local Governments
- State Governments
- County Governments
- City or Township Governments
- Special District Governments
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized)
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized)
- Federal Government
- Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government
- U.S. Territory or Possession
- Other
- Independent School Districts
- Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities
- Native American Tribal Organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Faith-based or Community-based Organizations
- Regional Organizations
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions).
For more information, visit Grants.gov.