Assay development and screening for discovery of chemical probes, drugs or immunomodulators (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
This NIH/NCI R01 funds discovery research to develop assays and screen small molecules, then validate hits and optimize leads as chemical probes, drugs, or immunomodulators for health-related targets and disease mechanisms.
⚑ Clinical Trial Not Allowed · Foreign organizations are eligible under the notice · Participating NIH Institutes only; scope is target/disease-mechanism discovery and hit-to-lead work, not clinical testing
Unit fits — one characterization, each unit's own rules
| Physical Sciences & Engineering (demo) | 80 strong | technical depth: substantial; funds basic research |
| IPPRA | 45 partial | peripheral portfolio topic: public_health; social/behavioral work is none; funds basic research; biomedical core — IPPRA health lane is communication/crisis/policy (capped); capped at 45 (limited social-science role) |
| Tom Love Innovation Hub | 15 none | deep-tech content; no commercialization signal |
Description
Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) solicits applications for identification of small molecules that function to elucidate the biology of disease as chemical probes or function as agonists or antagonists of disease target(s) for therapy or immunotherapy. The NOFO is intended to support discovery research for the identification of validated hits relevant to health-related outcomes of participating NIH Institutes. Stages of discovery research covered by this NOFO include: 1) assay development for specific biological targets and disease mechanisms relevant to the mission of participating NIH Institutes with the intent to screen for small molecule compounds that show potential as probes for use in advancing knowledge about the known targets, identifying new targets, or as pre-therapeutic leads; 2) screen implementation high throughput target-focused approaches or moderate throughput phenotypic- and fragment-based approaches to identify initial screening hits; 3) hit validation, including implementation of secondary assays that are orthogonal to the primary assay, advanced cheminformatics analysis and initial medicinal chemistry inspection to prioritize the hit set, and follow-up assays to characterize mode and mechanism of action of the validated hits; 4) hit-to-lead optimization, including SAR to optimize target engagement, selectivity and to minimize chemical liabilities, ADME, PK and PD studies, and, if appropriate, in vivo modeling to test efficacy or biological effects.
Eligibility
Other Eligible Applicants include the following: Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions; Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs); Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government; Faith-based or Community-based Organizations; Hispanic-serving Institutions; Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized); Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Organizations); Regional Organizations; Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs) ; U.S. Territory or Possession.
Apply
View on Grants.gov → CONTACT: National Institutes of Health <grantsinfo@nih.gov>
Proposal brief SEE AN EXAMPLE →
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Proposal shell · National Institutes of Health conventions SEE AN NIH EXAMPLE →
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