Group items tagged

HABRI has issued a Request for Proposals for projects that investigate the health outcomes of pet ownership and/or animal-assisted activity or therapy, both for the people and the animals involved. The organization is interested in projects that involve a variety of companion animals (e.g., small animals, dogs, cats, fish, and horses). Proposals should have a strong theoretical framework and focus on innovative approaches to studying the health effects of companion animals on humans within the following broad categories: child health and development; healthy aging; and mental health and wellness.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications to develop short-term tests that provide a comprehensive measure of resilience in animal models used in aging studies. Resilience is defined here as the ability of an organism to respond to physical challenges or stresses and return to homeostasis. Increased resilience is believed to correlate with longevity and a longer health-span, but appropriate methodology to test this comprehensibly in animal models is currently lacking. The purpose of this FOA is to develop appropriate tests to measure resilience to physical, molecular and cellular stresses, as a prelude to being able to predict, using a panel of standardized short-term tests in young or middle-aged animals, whether interventions might lead to improved future health outcomes and longevity.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications to develop short-term tests that provide a comprehensive measure of resilience in animal models used in aging studies. Resilience is defined here as the ability of an organism to respond to physical challenges or stresses and return to homeostasis. Increased resilience is believed to correlate with longevity and a longer health-span, but appropriate methodology to test this comprehensibly in animal models is currently lacking. The purpose of this FOA is to develop appropriate tests to measure resilience to physical, molecular and cellular stresses, as a prelude to being able to predict, using a panel of standardized short-term tests in young or middle-aged animals, whether interventions might lead to improved future health outcomes and longevity.

The National Institute on Aging is seeking applications on systems biology approaches using non-mammalian laboratory animal models to increase our understanding of the basic biology underpinning neurodegeneration. It is expected that research supported under this FOA will provide new insights into molecular networks that might be involved in causing, amplifying or protecting against neurodegeneration, and that, in turn, might ultimately contribute to Alzheimer's disease or related dementias. Importantly, a major goal of this FOA is to use interaction and regulatory networks produced and analyzed using systems biology to gain these new insights. Because this FOA is directed toward discovery, currently employed genetically modified laboratory animals used to study AD are not required, although they may be used. Because this FOA requires systems biology approaches, data used to build interaction or regulatory networks may also come from humans or other mammals in which AD, related dementias, or aging-related cognitive decline have been observed. This FOA will only support studies using non-mammalian laboratory animal models; studies involving humans or experiments with mammals will not be allowed under this FOA.

The goal of this FOA is to test whether or not the ages of laboratory animals is an important consideration in experimental outcomes in the study of disease pathology, degenerative condition, response to therapy, intervention or environmental exposure. The majority of studies of human conditions and diseases in laboratory animals are done using young animals. 

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA), issued by the NIH Basic Behavioral & Social Science Opportunity Network (OppNet), invites applications for short-term mentored career enhancement (K18) awards in basic behavioral and social sciences research (b-BSSR). This funding mechanism will support development of research capability in b-BSSR, with specific emphasis on cross-training and establishing collaborations between researchers with expertise in animal models of basic behavioral and social processes and those studying similar or related processes in human subjects. Basic research using any non-human species or with human subjects in laboratory- or field-based settings is appropriate for this FOA. Eligible candidates for this K18 will be either: (a) scientists conducting b-BSSR in animal models who seek training in the study of similar or related behavioral or social processes in humans; or (b) investigators conducting b-BSSR in human subjects who seek training in the study of similar or related processes in animal models. Candidates may be at any rank or level of research/academic development beyond three years of postdoctoral experience.

The National Institute on Aging is seeking applications to develop systems biology approaches to understand the basic biology underpinning neurodegeneration which might ultimately contribute to Alzheimer's disease or related dementias, using non-mammalian laboratory animal models. It is expected that research carried under the auspices of this FOA will lead to discovery of new mechanisms that provoke neurodegeneration and to new molecular pathways that might be involved in causing, amplifying or protecting against neurodegeneration. Applications should propose to use established non-mammalian laboratory animals which have a history of contributions to our understanding of neurobiology or aging biology.  

The participating NIH Institutes and Centers invite applications to address both the origins and the effects of low level chronic inflammation in the onset and progression of age-related diseases and conditions. Chronic inflammation, as defined by elevated levels of both local and systemic cytokines and other pro-inflammatory factors, is a hallmark of aging in virtually all higher animals including humans and is recognized as a major risk factor for developing age-associated diseases. The spectra of phenotypes capable of generating low-level chronic inflammation and their defining mediators are not clear. Further, a clear understanding of how chronic inflammation compromises the integrity of cells or tissues leading to disease progression is lacking. The role of dietary supplements and/or nutritional status in chronic inflammation in age-related disease is also poorly studied. Thus, there is a critical need to establish the knowledge base that will allow a better understanding of the complex interplay between inflammation and age-related diseases. Applications submitted to this FOA should aim to clarify the molecular and cellular basis for the increase in circulating inflammatory factors with aging, and/or shed light on the cause-effect relationship between inflammation and disease, using pre-clinical (animal or cellular based) models.

This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) supports the development of PET radioligands that identify proteinopathies or pathological processes associated with the human biology of Alzheimer's disease related dementias (ADRDs). Activities supported under this FOA include, but are not limited to the in vitro screening of existing ligands against human ADRD brain tissue, medicinal chemistry support for development of new compounds and improvement of existing ligand specificity and selectivity, initial screening of ligands in appropriate animal models, and radioligand formulation and first-in-human testing. The Center without Walls should encompass research that will move promising ligands through in vitro and in vivo optimization to first-in-human studies. Applications must include an administrative core, a medicinal chemistry core, a clinical core, a scientific governance structure, and a minimum of two research projects with milestone plans that address workflows for screening of existing and newly derived ligands against human ADRD tissue and appropriate animal models. Synergy must be evident among Center research projects and cores, such that successful completion of the aims could not be accomplished without the Center structure.

This funding opportunity announcement(FOA) supports the development of PET radioligands that identify proteinopathies or pathological processes associated with the human biology of Alzheimer's disease related dementias (ADRDs). Activities supported under this FOA include, but are not limited to the in vitro screening of existing ligands against human ADRD brain tissue, medicinal chemistry support for improvement of ligand specificity and selectivity, initial screening of ligands in appropriated animal models, and radioligand formulation and first-in-human testing. Applications must include an administrative core, a medicinal chemistry core, a clincial core, a scientific governance structure, and a minimum of two research projects with milestone plans that address workflows for screening of existing and newly derived ligands against human ADRD tissue and appropriate animal models. Synergy must be evident among Center research projects and cores, such that successful completion of the aims could not be accomplished without the Center structure. This FOA is in response to the Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (ADRD) challenges outlined in the 2016 update to the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications to develop valid markers to assess the activity of fundamental aging mechanisms in humans that may influence the risk and progression of multiple aging conditions. Projects are encouraged that focus on selected mechanism(s) that may regulate aging changes, assess multiple possible markers for these mechanisms, test methods to improve their measurement properties, characterize their variability among individuals of differing ages and within the same age cohort, and assess their relationships in humans to in vivo functions influenced by the mechanism(s) under study. It is strongly encouraged that each project includes an interdisciplinary research team with expertise, as needed, in the biology of their selected mechanism(s), biomedical aging research, clinical pathology including laboratory assays, imaging methods, human cohort studies, tissue banking, biorepository resources, and statistics. Though the principal focus of the initiative is on development of markers in humans, studies in laboratory animals may also be conducted when necessary for the development of human markers, and potential development of parallel laboratory animal markers of a given mechanism.

The goal of this FOA is to test whether or not the ages of laboratory animals is an important consideration in experimental outcomes in the study of disease pathology, degenerative condition, response to therapy, intervention or environmental exposure.

This funding opportunity invites applications that integrate the use of computational approaches to identify individual drugs currently used for other conditions with potential to be efficacious in AD or AD-related dementias (as single drugs or as drug combinations) with proof-of-concept efficacy studies in cell-based models, animal models and/or humans. 

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications that focus on clarifying the relationship between delirium and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). Specifically sought is research focusing on understanding why persons with ADRD are at increased risk to develop delirium, often with a worse prognosis compared to those without antecedent ADRD, and why patients who experience delirium are at higher risk to develop subsequent short- and/or long-term mild cognitive impairment or ADRD, often with an accelerated rate of cognitive decline compared to those without preceding delirium. Relevant research projects may focus on, but are not limited to, those that A) provide insight into possible common, sequential, causative, contributory and/or synergistic pathways underlying both ADRD and delirium, B) elucidate mechanisms that lead to the development of delirium against the background of aging and/or neurodegeneration, with particular emphasis on use of appropriate animal models, C) identify risk factors for the onset and/or progression of delirium in those with ADRD and vice versa, D) diagnose and assess one condition in the setting of the other, E) identify putative phenotypes of patients with co-existing ADRD and delirium, or F) test pharmacologic and/or non-pharmacologic strategies to prevent, treat, or reduce the impact of delirium in patients with ADRD and vice versa. Research supported by this FOA is intended to provide mechanistic insight to improve risk assessment, diagnosis, phenotyping, prevention, and management approaches for both delirium and ADRD.

This FOA invites exploratory comparative biology research projects assessing how different animal species respond to challenges and damage to cellular physiology pathways that might influence the onset of Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases as well as resilience to them, such as adaptation to stress, macromolecular damage, proteostasis and stem cell function and regeneration.    

The purpose of this FOA is to invite: 1) descriptive studies to identify putative juvenile protective factors, 2) experimental studies to test hypotheses about their effects on aging and 3) translational studies to characterize potential beneficial and adverse effects of maintaining or modulating the level of juvenile protective factors in adult life. Juvenile protective factors (JPFs), intrinsic to an immature organism, help to maintain or enhance certain physiological functions across all or some stages of postnatal development (i.e., segment of the life span between birth and sexual maturity), but diminish or disappear as the organism transitions from one maturational stage to the next. The loss or diminution of JPFs after a given stage of postnatal development or at time of sexual maturity may contribute to the onset of deleterious aging changes (e.g., compromised stem cell function and reparative capacity) across adulthood. This FOA is uniquely focused on animal and clinical studies which involve comparisons between juvenile versus adult states or between stages of postnatal development to identify putative JPFs and their effects on aging. 

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) issued by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) is to solicit two-year Research Project Grant (R01) applications that propose to explore the potential for midlife plasticity of biobehavioral or psychological systems affected by early life disadvantage. In order to speed the development of novel intervention strategies, applicants are encouraged either to use existing human cohort data to identify circumstances that mitigate or exacerbate the effects of early adversity or to use human and/or animal models to test the feasibility of developing interventions aimed specifically at increasing malleability in adulthood of risk persistence mechanisms.

The purpose of this FOA is to invite pilot/feasibility (R03) projects on: 1) descriptive studies to identify putative juvenile protective factors, 2) experimental studies to test hypotheses about their effects on aging and 3) translational studies to explore the potential risks and benefits of maintaining or modulating the level of juvenile protective factors in adult life. Juvenile protective factors are physiological factors that maintain or enhance certain functions across all or some stages of post-natal maturation, but which diminish or disappear during transitions between developmental stages (e.g., infancy, adiposity rebound, adrenarche, puberty, growth cessation). This FOA is uniquely focused on studies which involve comparisons between post-natal developmental stages or pre- vs. post-maturational changes to identify potential juvenile protective factors and their effects on aging. Pilot studies in in vitro models, in laboratory animals or in humans may be proposed.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites pilot/feasibility projects that propose basic, clinical, or translational research on underactive bladder (UAB) and its consequences in aging and in older persons. Applications should focus on the 1) biology, etiology and pathophysiology of UAB in animal models and/or older adults;  2) translation of basic/clinical research into clinical practice and health decision-making; 3) diagnosis, prevention, management and clinical outcomes of UAB in older adults; and/or 4) epidemiology and risk factors for the development of UAB with advancing age. Pilot/feasibility research supported by this initiative should enhance knowledge of UAB and its consequences in older adults and provide evidence of feasibility of the diagnosis, evaluation, and/or treatment of UAB in older persons.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications to provide infrastructure support for advancing development of specific high-priority areas of behavioral and social research of relevance to aging. The infrastructure support will facilitate research networks through meetings, conferences, small-scale pilots, short-term educational opportunities (such as intensive workshops, summer institutes, or visiting scholar programs), and dissemination to encourage growth and development of specified priority areas and build resources for advancing aging-relevant research in the field at large. Network applications are limited to the following areas: (1) Midlife Reversibility of Biobehavioral Risk Associated with Early Life Adversity, (2) Stress Measurement, (3) Reproducibility in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, (4) Life Course Health Disparities at Older Ages, (5) Genomics of Behavioral and Social Science, (6) Integrating Animal Models to Inform Behavioral and Social Research on Aging, and (7) Rural Aging.    

The goal of this reissued Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to expand understanding of age-related changes that occur in immune function during the aging process that influence responses to pathogens and/or vaccines, as well as oral and craniofacial health. Human studies are required, and inclusion of relevant animal studies is permitted for mechanistic understanding. This FOA solicits applications that will determine the mechanisms required for induction and maintenance of protective immunity in the elderly in response to infections and/or vaccinations, including the effects of chronic inflammation on those responses, and applications that will assess changes in immune processes in dental, oral and craniofacial tissues in the elderly.