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This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is intended to foster research towards a better understanding of the biological mechanisms of gene-environment interplay in human diseases and conditions. Through this FOA, the NIDCR, NIEHS, and NICHD solicit applications that use animal models, in vitro systems, or ex vivo approaches to conduct mechanistic investigation of the interplay of genes/gene networks and environmental factors in dental, oral, craniofacial (DOC), and other diseases and conditions.

The Directorate for Biological Sciences (BIO) awards Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Biology (PRFB) to recent recipients of the doctoral degree for research and training in selected areas supported by BIO and with special goals for human resource development in biology. The fellowships encourage independence at an early stage of the research career to permit Fellows to pursue their research and training goals in the most appropriate research locations regardless of the availability of funding for the Fellows at that site. For applications under this solicitation, these areas are (1) Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology, (2) Interdisciplinary Research Using Biological Collections, (3) National Plant Genome Initiative (NPGI) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships and (4) Integrative Research Investigating the Rules of Life Governing Interactions Between Genomes, Environment and Phenotypes.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET), seeks proposals that elucidate mechanisms of, and develop strategies to, direct the differentiation of undifferentiated cells into mature, functional cells or organoids. Projects responsive to this solicitation must aim to establish a robust and reproducible set of differentiation design rules, predictive models, real-time sensing, control, and quality assurance methods, and integrate them into a workable differentiation strategy. They must develop a fundamental understanding of how cells develop, including mechanisms, molecular machinery, dynamics, and cell-cell interactions, and use this understanding to manipulate cells purposefully. Investigators can choose any undifferentiated cell type, from any animal species, as a starting point and choose any appropriate functional product (cell, organoid, etc.) with real-world relevance. This solicitation parallels NSF's investment in Understanding the Rules of Life (URoL): Predicting Phenotype, NSF's Big Idea focused on predicting the set of observable characteristics (phenotype) of an organism based on its genetic makeup and the nature of its environment and applies it to understanding and accomplishing the intentional and guided differentiation of an undifferentiated cell into cells, organoids or tissues with predetermined activities and functions.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems (CBET), seeks proposals that elucidate mechanisms of, and develop strategies to, direct the differentiation of undifferentiated cells into mature, functional cells or organoids. Projects responsive to this solicitation must aim to establish a robust and reproducible set of differentiation design rules, predictive models, real-time sensing, control, and quality assurance methods, and integrate them into a workable differentiation strategy. They must develop a fundamental understanding of how cells develop, including mechanisms, molecular machinery, dynamics, and cell-cell interactions, and use this understanding to manipulate cells purposefully. Investigators can choose any undifferentiated cell type, from any animal species, as a starting point and choose any appropriate functional product (cell, organoid, etc.) with real-world relevance.This solicitation parallels NSF's investment inUnderstanding the Rules of Life (URoL): Predicting Phenotype, NSF's Big Idea focused on predicting the set of observable characteristics (phenotype) of an organism based on its genetic makeup and the nature of its environment and applies it to understanding and accomplishing the intentional and guided differentiation of an undifferentiated cell into cells, organoids or tissues with predetermined activities and functions.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will support research using population-based model organism resources for environmental health science and toxicology questions. This FOA is particularly interested in the interplay between environment, genetics, and epigenetics and the identification and understanding of host susceptibility to environmental exposures, relevant to human disease outcomes.

The Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) has long had the mission to improve social and living conditions in the United States. It pursues this goal by supporting outstanding research in the social sciences that explores how social, economic, and political factors affect the lives of Americans and their children. Support of such research remains the Foundation's core focus. RSF also has a long history of encouraging new scientific advances to strengthen the methods, data, and theoretical core of the social sciences. Two recent intellectual developments have prompted RSF to launch a special research initiative that integrates knowledge from the biological and social sciences. First, there has been a paradigm shift in the life sciences, spurred by the realization that many biological processes, rather than being fixed, immutable mechanisms that consign people to particular life outcomes, are instead fluid, dynamic responses to features of the social and physical environments humans inhabit. Second, this shift led researchers to launch interdisciplinary studies that seek to integrate approaches from the social and biological sciences, recognizing the potential for a deeper understanding of how social inequalities are initiated, maintained, and transmitted from one generation to the next.

The Communities Building Healthier Environments for a Stronger Nation Initiative ('Communities Initiative') intends to demonstrate the effectiveness of community-based networks in improving health outcomes among racial and ethnic minority and/or other disadvantaged populations. This program seeks to improve health outcomes through the establishment of integrated networks that collaboratively employ evidence-based disease management and preventive health activities; build the capacity of communities to address social determinants and barriers to healthcare access; and increase access to and utilization of preventive health care, medical treatment, and supportive services. The Communities Initiative specifically targets the unmet healthcare and supportive service needs of racial and ethnic minority populations at highest risk for poorer health outcomes. Health services provided under the Communities Initiative will not be denied to any person based on race, color, or national origin. Populations at highest risk include, but are not limited to, individuals who are newly diagnosed and lack a medical home; individuals who experience difficulty in adhering to a prescribed medical treatment plan; individuals with a chronic disease that is not well managed; and individuals that are unstably housed. Specific health areas to be addressed by the Communities Initiative include asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis B or C, obesity/overweight, and mental disorders. Community health programs are required to address social determinants of health, and improve coordination of health, social, and supportive services to significantly improve health outcomes among minority and/or disadvantaged communities. Applicants must choose two but no more than three chronic conditions

The DOE SC program in Biological and Environmental Research (BER) hereby announces its interest in receiving applications for research in Environmental Systems Science (ESS), including Terrestrial Ecosystem Science (TES) and Subsurface Biogeochemical Research (SBR). The goal of the Environmental System Science (ESS) activity in BER is to advance a robust, predictive understanding of the set of interdependent physical, biogeochemical, ecological, hydrological, and geomorphological processes for use in Earth system, ecosystem and reactive transport models. Using an iterative approach to model-driven experimentation and observation, and interdisciplinary teams, ESS-supported scientists work to unravel the coupled physical, chemical and biological processes that control the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and integrated watersheds across critical spatial and temporal scales. This FOA will consider applications that focus on improving the understanding and representation of terrestrial and subsurface environments in ways that advance the sophistication and capabilities of local, regional, and larger scale models.

The purpose of this funding opportunity is to solicit applications that fully integrate recent innovative advances of in vitro functional genomics tools/technologies and approaches for environmental health and toxicology research. The overall goal of this NIEHS led initiative is to generate proof-of-principle studies incorporating these new in vitro approaches, together with well characterized exposures, to further our understanding of gene-environment (G x E) interactions in complex human disorders.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) solicits research projects focused on the process of effective communication of research findings about breast cancer and the environment. A central objective of this new initiative is to ensure effective translation of findings that result in risk messaging that is understood by targeted audiences.  The ultimate goal is to provide the scientific evidence for developing communication-based prevention efforts to reduce the risk for breast cancer from environmental factors.  

The Environmental Health and Safety of Nanotechnology (Nano EHS) program provides support to examine and mitigate the environmental effects of nanotechnologies. Fundamental research is sought to understand, evaluate, and lessen the impact of nanotechnology on the environment and biological systems. The program emphasizes engineering principles underlying the environmental health and safety impacts of nanotechnology. Innovative methods related to clean nanomaterials production processes, waste reduction, recycling, and industrial ecology of nanotechnology are also of interest.

The Geobiology and Low-Temperature Geochemistry Program supports research on 1) the interactions between biological and geological systems at all scales of space and time; 2) geomicrobiology and biomineralization processes; 3) the role of life in the transformation and evolution of the Earth's geochemical cycles; 4) inorganic and organic geochemical processes occurring at or near the Earth's surface now and in the past, and at the broad spectrum of interfaces ranging in scale from planetary and regional to mineral-surface and supramolecular; 5) mineralogy and chemistry of soils and sediments; 6) surficial chemical and biogeochemical systems and cycles and their modification through natural and anthropogenic change; and 7) development of tools, methods, and models for low-temperature geochemistry and geobiological research - such as those emerging from molecular biology - in the study of the terrestrial environment.

Beginning in 2011, the American Academy of Microbiology (Academy) will provide a one-year fellowship to a recent microbiology PhD recipient. The Academy is the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the world's oldest and largest life science organization. The mission of the Academy is to recognize scientists for outstanding contributions to microbiology and provide microbiological expertise in the service of science and the public. To this end, each year the Academy convenes five to six colloquia to address critical issues in microbiology. Colloquium reports are used by governmental agencies, industry, educators and the scientific and lay communities. The field of microbiology is broad and microbiologists have much to contribute to solving societal challenges in health, food, energy and the environment. Communicating the excitement and potential benefits of advances in microbiology is critically important to attract the next generation of students into the field, to educate and inform the public and to justify continued investment in microbiology research. In addition to academic researchers and clinicians, the field of microbiology needs individuals who are skilled in science communication and public outreach. The goal of the AAM Colloquium fellowship is to provide an opportunity for a recent microbiology PhD graduate to develop these skills. The fellow will work closely with the Academy Director on the colloquium program, participating in the entire process from choosing appropriate topics through proposal development and fund-raising to writing colloquium reports to publicity and dissemination.

The Physics Frontiers Centers (PFC) program supports university-based centers and institutes where the collective efforts of a larger group of individuals can enable transformational advances in the most promising research areas. The program is designed to foster major breakthroughs at the intellectual frontiers of physics by providing needed resources such as combinations of talents, skills, disciplines, and/or specialized infrastructure, not usually available to individual investigators or small groups, in an environment in which the collective efforts of the larger group can be shown to be seminal to promoting significant progress in the science and the education of students. Activities supported through the program are in all sub-fields of physics within the purview of the Division of Physics: atomic, molecular, optical, plasma, elementary particle, nuclear, astro-, gravitational, and biological physics.

The Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) supports research aimed at understanding why organisms are structured the way they are and function as they do. Proposals should focus on organisms as a fundamental unit of biological organization. Principal Investigators (PIs) are encouraged to apply systems approaches that will lead to conceptual and theoretical insights and predictions about emergent organismal properties.  Areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to, developmental biology and the evolution of developmental processes, nervous system development, structure, and function, physiological processes, functional morphology, symbioses, interactions of organisms with biotic and abiotic environments, and animal behavior.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is interested in funding a diverse set of projects that develop, test and evaluate various simulation approaches for the purpose of improving the safe delivery of health care. Simulation in health care serves multiple purposes. As a training technique, it exposes individuals and teams to realistic clinical challenges through the use of mannequins, task trainers, virtual reality, standardized patients or other forms, and allows participants to experience in real-time the consequences of their decisions and actions. The principal advantage of simulation is that it provides a safe environment for health care practitioners to acquire valuable experience without putting patients at risk. Simulation also can be used as a test-bed to improve clinical processes and to identify failure modes or other areas of concern in new procedures and technologies that might otherwise be unanticipated and serve as threats to patient safety. Yet another application of simulation focuses on the establishment of valid and reliable measures of clinical performance competency and their potential use for credentialing and certification purposes. The foremost aim of the announcement is to advance patient safety. Keeping this aim in mind, applications that address a variety of simulation techniques, clinical settings, provider groups, priority populations, and patient conditions are welcomed.

The Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering (BBE) program supports fundamental engineering research that advances the understanding of cellular and biomolecular processes in engineering biology and eventually leads to the development of enabling technology for advanced manufacturing and/or applications in support of the biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, and bioenergy industries, or with applications in health or the environment.  A quantitative treatment of biological and engineering problems of biological processes is considered vital to successful research projects in the BBE program. 

The Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities (EHD) research program is a collaborative effort supported by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that encourages basic, biological, clinical, epidemiological, behavioral and/or social scientific investigations of disease conditions that are known to be a significant burden in low socioeconomic and health disparate populations. The centers define environmental health disparities as inequities in illnesses that are mediated by disproportionate exposures associated with the social, natural and built environments. The kick-off meeting will feature presentations from each of the five funded centers highlighting their proposed research.

The Cellular and Biochemical Engineering (CBE) program supports fundamental engineering research that advances the understanding of cellular and biomolecular processes in engineering biology and eventually leads to the development of enabling technology for advanced biomanufacturing in support of the therapeutic cells, biochemical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.  A quantitative treatment of biological and engineering problems of biological processes is considered vital to successful research projects in the CBE program.  Fundamental to many research projects in this area is the understanding of how biomolecules, cells and cell populations interact in the biomanufacturing environment, and how those molecular-level interactions lead to changes in structure, function, and behavior.  The program encourages highly innovative and potentially transformative engineering research leading to novel bioprocessing and biomanufacturing approaches, and proposals that address emerging research areas and technologies that effectively integrate knowledge and practices from different disciplines while incorporating ongoing research into educational activities.

The Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) supports research aimed at understanding why organisms are structured the way they are and function as they do. Proposals should focus on organisms as a fundamental unit of biological organization. Principal Investigators (PIs) are encouraged to apply systems approaches that will lead to conceptual and theoretical insights and predictions about emergent organismal properties. Areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to, developmental biology and the evolution of developmental processes, nervous system development, structure, and function, physiological processes, functional morphology, symbioses, interactions of organisms with biotic and abiotic environments, and animal behavior. Proposals are welcomed in all areas of science supported by the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems. All investigator-initiated proposals to the core programs in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems must now be invited based on merit review of preliminary proposals.