NIH Sets Aside $8M for Molecular Screening Assay Development in 2007

 

According to a request for applications issued Friday, NIH will award up to 50 grants under the program, called "Assay Development for High Throughput Molecular Screening."

 

The RFA, a reissue of a program announced in 2005, is a component of the NIH Molecular Libraries and Imaging Roadmap Initiative.

 

The goal of the program is "to initiate a continuously evolving stream of scientifically and technologically outstanding assays that can be miniaturized, automated and further used for screening small molecules within the Molecular Libraries Screening Centers Network," NIH said.

 

NIH said that it will emphasize the screening of targets "for which an inadequate array of selective and potent small molecule modulators are available to the public."

 

Appropriate assays may include, but are not limited to: biochemical or cell-based assays of activity measuring target interactions involving small molecules, peptides, or other biological molecules; cell-based assays measuring cell signaling or the activity of biosynthetic pathways; assays of cellular or molecular phenotypes; modulation of gene expression, including effects on transcription, translation or RNA splicing; assays measuring protein-protein interactions; assays involving mutant proteins associated with disease; and assays using model organisms such as yeast, C. elegans, and zebrafish.  

 

Letters of intent are due on Sept. 8 and applications are due Sept. 22.