The National Institute on Drug Abuse's medications development program is soliciting proposals on the pharmacogenetics of drug addiction.
"The genetics component of the clinical trials will focus on the identification of pharmacogenetic factors that predict patient response to medications and/or between-subject variations in pharmacokinetics, as well as the identification of biomarkers for addiction," NIDA said in a presolicitation issued last week.
Specifically, NIDA is interested in funding investigators that wish to "conduct the related DNA and RNA analyses on blood samples collected from … studies, to interpret the data, and to write high-quality reports and publications that summarize important findings."
NIDA is interested in seeing proposals for genotyping using Affymetrix GeneChip Mapping 500K array sets or equivalent platforms or proposals for expression analyses using Human Genome U-133 Plus 2.0 arrays or similar technology.
Winning proposals will be given a five-year contract in which NIDA will reimburse the cost of the PGx analysis.
NIDA said that the request for proposals will be available electronically around Jan. 28. Investigators interested in submitting a proposal should do so by March 14.
"NIDA will consider proposals submitted by any responsible offeror," the institute said.