The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to accelerate translation of research to improve early detection of head and neck cancers (HNC). This FOA seeks applications that focus on early detection of HNC by applying molecular, cellular, and multi-omics signatures to clinical studies for differentiating benign from premalignant lesions, and identifying prognostic signatures on the transformation from premalignant to malignant lesions.
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: 12/11/2022
Size of the Grant: $500,000
Grant Duration: 5 years
Details:
Research Objectives and Scope
The predominant precursor for HNC is tissue dysplasia. Treatment approaches for dysplastic lesions include observation, excision, phototherapy, laser therapy, cryotherapy, or pharmacological therapy. Estimates of the propensity for lesions to progress to cancer vary considerably, and in most cases, there are limited biomarkers that can predict which lesions will progress to cancer and which will not. In addition, tumor recurrence and metastasis after treatment, and the development of secondary tumors are risk factors for poor prognosis of HNC patients. Better understanding of the molecular characteristics of dysplastic lesions and early recurrence are needed to provide biomarkers that improve lesion classification relevant to predicting cancer progression, which could have a significant impact on cancer prevention and treatment optimization.
Examples of research areas that fall within the scope of this FOA include, but are not limited to:
- Identify and develop signatures for early cancer classification of HPV(+) and HPV(-) HNC, or premalignant lesions. This may include molecular, immunological, cellular, imaging, or multi-omics (genomic, epigenomics, transcriptomics, proteomics) signatures to detect tumor heterogeneity and plasticity for predicting potential of dysplasic lesions to transform.
- Identify and evaluate prognostic biomarkers and technologies that complement current clinical methods (e.g. CT, MRI, pathology) to increase sensitivity and specificity for assessing risk for early cancer development and progression, and early cancer recurrence and metastasis after treatments.
- Develop novel tools and methods for detecting molecular, immunological, and cellular hallmarks in bodily fluids obtained by non-invasive or minimally invasive methods for HNC detection, with standardization of sample collection.
- Integrate high throughput technologies of cancer multi-omics, with large datasets, bioinformatics computation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) approaches to accelerate the process of cancer early detection and prognostic biomarker discovery and validation.
- Identify and characterize factors for risk prediction or early detection of HNC, including nutrition, microbiome, immunocompetence, oral health, and health disparities.
Funding Information
- Applications are limited to $500,000 direct costs per year.
- 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.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
