dkNET community events and announcements in May, 2021

Dear dkNET Community,

dkNET provides updates on activities of interest to the NIDDK-supported community. You could keep up to date on these activities through our Twitter feed @dkNET_info, through our Community Calendar, or through dkNET e-mail list. If you have an event or funding opportunities you'd like to advertise, please contact us info_at_dknet.org.

dkNET News

• dkNET at Experimental Biology 2021 Thanks for those who visited our virtual booth at the Experimental Biology 2021 during April 27-30, 2021! For those who did not have a chance to visit our virtual booth, our virtual booth is available for viewing until May 31. Check out dkNET virtual booth to learn more about our new features and funding opportunities! Short link to our booth: https://cdmcd.co/gQajbL.

• dkNET Webinar Series
• Join dkNET Upcoming Webinars in May: Save the date! dkNET Webinars (1) "Solving the Undiagnosed Diseases Network through Machine Learning", presented by Dr. Zhandong Liu, will be held on Friday, May 14, 2021, 11 am - 12 pm PT. Register it now! (2) “Appyters: Turning Jupyter Notebooks into Data-Driven Web Apps” will be held on Friday, May 28, 2021, 11 am - 12 pm PT. More information: https://dknet.org/about/webinar
• Recordings and Slides of the dkNET Webinars Are Now Available! (1) "Multi-Omics Data Integration for Phenotype Prediction of Type-1 Diabetes" , presented by Dr. Wei Zhang:  Recording; Slides.

• dkNET Summer of Data Student Internship Program Are you a student, or know of students, who are doing research in NIDDK fields such as diabetes, kidney, digestive, obesity, metabolic, liver, endocrine, urology, nutrition, or hematology diseases? The 2021 dkNET Summer of Data Student Internship Program provides students an opportunity to learn best practices to enhance rigor and reproducibility and learn the basics of good data management by following the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data principles. Don't miss this second opportunity! Application deadline: May 7, 2021.

• New Version of the Preprint Released! dkNET P.I. Dr. Maryann Martone and collaborators Drs. Fiona Murphy and Michael Bar-Sinai released a new version of the preprint “A tool for assessing alignment of biomedical data repositories with open, FAIR, citation and trustworthy principles.” Check out the preprint to learn about this new tool for evaluating how well repositories support Open, FAIR, Citation and Trustworthy principles!

• New Resource added to dkNET - Pediatric Obesity Microbiome and Metabolism Study (POMMS, RRID:SCR_021071), funded by NIDDK, is a biorepository resource generated from a diverse population of adolescents with obesity undergoing a 6-month treatment intervention as well as healthy weight controls. It contains fecal, serum, and PBMC samples as well as derived clinical, microbiome, and metabolomic data. The samples and data are available for investigators to facilitate relevant collaborative and independent research efforts. Learn more at POMMS website: https://sites.duke.edu/pomms/ and publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/oby.23081

Events in May, 2021

May. 03, 2021

Sphingolipids Biology Webinar: Sphingolipid-Dependent Diet-Microbiome Interactions

Dietary sphingolipids are significant components of infant diets that have great potential to interact with beneficial gut microbes with active sphingolipid metabolism. Despite the prevalence of sphingolipid-producing bacteria in infant microbiomes, the ability of the gut microbiome to take up and transform dietary sphingolipids has not been fully explored. During this webinar I will discuss methodology my lab has developed to trace dietary sphingolipids into gut microbial metabolism using a combination of click chemistry, fluorescence activated cell sorting, 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and comparative metabolomics. With this approach we determined that sphingolipid-producing bacteria readily take up dietary sphingolipids. We also characterized the use of exogenous sphingolipids by other beneficial bacteria not previously known to interact with sphingolipids. Together this work opens up the need for further exploration of sphingolipids as important molecules in diet-host-microbe interactions.

Presenter: Elizabeth Johnson, Cornell University, USA

More Information: https://www.sphingolipidbiology.com/speakers/elizabeth-johnson

May. 05, 2021 

LIPID MAPS Webinar: Juggling with Lipids, a Russian Roulette

Dr. Marcus Conrad is director of the Institute of Metabolism and Cell Death at the Helmholtz Zentrum München in the field of metabolic cell death signalling and drug discovery. His research focus is concerned with the study of a recently recognized form of regulated necrotic cell death, now known as ferroptosis. Ferroptosis is a metabolic form of necrotic cell death characterized by the iron-dependent oxidative destruction of cellular membranes. Ferroptosis is emerging as the underlying cause of a number of diseases such as neurodegeneration, tissue ischemia/reperfusion injury and cancer. The webinar begins Friday, May 5th 2021 at 9am PDT. Register at link below

Presented by: Dr Marcus Conrad

More information: https://www.lipidmaps.org/resources/tutorials/webinars/webinar/?code=lm_s2_marcus_conrad

May. 07, 2021 

Diabetes Research and Training Center (DRTC) Friday Seminar Series: A New Approach for Nuclear Receptor Drug Screening

Liver Receptor Homolog-1 is a phospholipid-regulated nuclear receptor that is a well-validated drug target in type-2 diabetes and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). We designed a high-throughput drug screen chiwch identifies several molecules with potential to regulate LRH-1. When combined with purely computational docking studies, our data suggest a novel association in wet lab assays. These data pave the way for more effective nuclear receptor drug screening by integrated computational drug screening with LRH-1 activation assays in the wet lab.

Presenter: Ray Blind, PhD

Webinar begins May 7, 2021 at 12pm CT (10am PT)

More information: https://twitter.com/vumcdiabetes/status/1388221453145837571 

May. 10-12, 2021 

8th Helmholz Diabetes Conference

For the 8th time, the Helmholtz Zentrum München is organizing this high-impact conference series. Internationally leading scientists in diabetes research are joining us here in Munich to present and discuss their most recent data and achievements during this event. Our overriding goal is to find new ways for the prevention and treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This conference will focus on the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms involved in the development of diabetes. The world’s leading faculty in this area will thus enrich this year’s program. Following our long-standing tradition, we will feature again the HelDI (Helmholtz Young Investigator in Diabetes) competition with selected talks by rising stars in the field of diabetes, and the presentation of the Helmholtz Diabetes Lecture. In 2021, Susan Bonner-Weir (Harvard University) will receive this award in recognition of her life-time achievements.

More information: https://www.hd-conference.com/about/the-conference/index.html

May. 14, 2021 

dkNET Webinar: Undiagnosed Diseases Network

Abstract

Every year hundreds of patients face uncertainty when healthcare providers are unable to discover the cause for their symptoms. The Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN) is a research study backed by the National Institutes of Health Common Fund that seeks to provide answers for patients and families affected by these mysterious conditions. For patients with potential rare genetic disorders, sequencing will be performed to identify the disease-causing variant. The process of defining pathogenicity currently requires labor-intensive manual searches of a variety of databases and web resources. This manual process is time-consuming, subject to inter-user variability and variations in the depth or quality of the databases. It also requires broad expertise across multiple biological and informatics domains. Here, we created a systematic, comprehensive search engine, MARRVEL (Model organism Aggregated Resources for Rare Variant ExpLoration, http://marrvel.org), that mines all the critical information for variant analysis and presents it in a succinct, user-friendly way. MARRVEL integrates human databases (OMIM, gnomAD, ExAC, ClinVar, Geno2MP, DGV, and DECIPHER) and seven model organism databases from yeast to mammals. Furthermore, we are also developing a Knowledge-based and Explainable Artificial Intelligent system (MARRVEL-AI) to prioritize and identify novel disease-causing coding variants. The interpretability of a machine learning method inversely correlates with its accuracy for complex tasks. To circumvent this, we are combining different models of artificial intelligence with complementary strengths, such as expert system and random forest. With only a small training data set, our model achieved a high accuracy in identifying disease causing variants for UDN cases.

Presenter: Zhandong Liu, PhD, Associate Professor, Quantitative and Computational Biosciences, Baylor College of Medicine

More information: https://dknet.org/about/blog/2252 

May. 14, 2021 

NIDDK Workshop on T1D Disease Modifying Therapy and Prevention

In recent years, substantial advances have been made in identifying individuals at risk for the development of type 1 diabetes and in altering the course of the disease before and after clinical type 1 diabetes diagnosis. Specifically, seven immune therapies have been shown to alter the disease course after clinical diagnosis, and one therapy actually slowed disease progression prior to clinical diagnosis. In addition, people destined to develop type 1 diabetes now can be identified reliably, and close follow-up of at-risk individuals has been shown to reduce the incidence of diabetic ketoacidosis among those who do progress to diabetes. Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), has made many of these successes possible.

Registration Deadline: May 5, 2021

Webinar takes place: May 14 & 21, 2021

More information: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/news/meetings-workshops/2021/workshop-t1d-disease-modifying-therapy-prevention 

May. 15, 2021 

15th Annual Chicago Diabetes Day

This half-day program is designed for scientists/investigators, students and clinicians with an interest in diabetes. As in the past, emphasis will be on the presentation of new and unpublished data, and on vigorous interactions among the audience and speakers.

Registration is free for all.

More information: https://medicine.uchicago.edu/files/2021/01/Diabetes-Day-2021-05-15-Agenda.pdf 

May. 17, 2021 

Sphingolipids Biology Webinar: Sialidase Neu3: The Multi-faced Janus of Sphingolipid Biology

Presenter: Luigi Anastasia, Univ. Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Italy

Register at link below

More information: https://www.sphingolipidbiology.com/speakers/luigi-anastasia

May. 19, 2021 

RDCA-DAP Professional Webinar Series: Value of Integrated Data and Analytics in Rare Disease Drug Development

The Rare Disease Cures Accelerator–Data and Analytics Platform is launching a new webinar series with the goal of sharing with the community examples of the use of rare disease person-level data in drug development and regulatory decision making. The series will feature 1-hour webinars highlighting analyses that have been done in individual disease areas, how they informed drug development, and how similar approaches could be applied to common drug development issues encountered in rare diseases. After each presentation time will be allowed for discussion with a panel of quantitative and regulatory experts around why the solutions presented were informative, lessons learned and how similar approaches could be applied to related problems.

May 19, 12pm ET Webinar Two: Interpretation of novel biomarkers in related diseases through data interoperability in a pan-rare disease database. Example diseases: Polycystic kidney disease and kidney transplant. Register now!

More information: https://criticalpath.webex.com/mw3300/mywebex/default.do?nomenu=true

May. 21-23, 2021 

Digestive Disease Week Conference

DDW is the world’s premier meeting for physicians, researchers and industry in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery. Registration is now open. The conference takes place May 21-23, 2021. 

More information: https://ddw.org/ 

May. 21, 2021 

NIDDK Symposium Registration Deadline: Heterogeneity of Diabetes: Beta Cells, Phenotypes and Precision Medicine

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin in 2021—Diabetes Symposium, Heterogeneity of Diabetes: Beta Cells, Phenotypes and Precision Medicine, June 2–3, 2021. This symposium will capitalize on diabetes research excellence and bring together research leaders to tackle the challenges and opportunities presented by investigation of the heterogeneity of diabetes and to inform on the next steps for research in this area. We look forward to this symposium facilitating engagement and stimulating collaboration among participants through discussions, highlighting critical knowledge gaps and novel approaches in diabetes research.

Register by May 21, 2021 for the Symposium on June 2-3, 2021

More information: https://dknet.org/about/dknetnews/2244

May. 21, 2021 

NIDDK Workshop on T1D Disease Modifying Therapy and Prevention

In recent years, substantial advances have been made in identifying individuals at risk for the development of type 1 diabetes and in altering the course of the disease before and after clinical type 1 diabetes diagnosis. Specifically, seven immune therapies have been shown to alter the disease course after clinical diagnosis, and one therapy actually slowed disease progression prior to clinical diagnosis. In addition, people destined to develop type 1 diabetes now can be identified reliably, and close follow-up of at-risk individuals has been shown to reduce the incidence of diabetic ketoacidosis among those who do progress to diabetes. Type 1 Diabetes TrialNet, funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), has made many of these successes possible.

Registration Deadline: May 10, 2021

Webinar takes place: May 14 & 21, 2021

More information: https://www.niddk.nih.gov/news/meetings-workshops/2021/workshop-t1d-disease-modifying-therapy-prevention

May. 28, 2021 

dkNET Webinar: Appyters: Turning Jupyter Notebooks Into Data-Driven Web Apps

Jupyter Notebooks have transformed the communication of data analysis pipelines by facilitating a modular structure that brings together code, markdown text, and interactive visualizations. Here, we extended Jupyter Notebooks to broaden their accessibility with Appyters. Appyters turn Jupyter Notebooks into fully functional standalone web-based bioinformatics applications. Appyters present to users an entry form enabling them to upload their data and set various parameters for a multitude of data analysis workflows. Once the form is filled, the Appyter executes the corresponding notebook in the cloud, producing the output without requiring the user to interact directly with the code. Appyters were used to create many bioinformatics web-based reusable workflows, including applications to build customized machine learning pipelines, analyze omics data, and produce publishable figures. These Appyters are served in the Appyters Catalog at https://appyters.maayanlab.cloud. In summary, Appyters enable the rapid development of interactive web-based bioinformatics applications.

The top 3 key questions that Appyters can answer:

1. I wrote my workflow as a Python Jupyter Notebook, is there an easy way that I can quickly convert this notebook into a web app so that others can use my workflow to process their data?

2. I have bulk RNA-seq data that I collected and would like to analyze. The genomics core provided me with the aligned reads file, but I am not sure about the next steps. Can I use an Appyter to analyze my data?

3. I am interested in doing some data analysis using the TCGA RNA-seq data, but I am having trouble accessing and formatting the data I need from the new GDC data portal. Is there an Appyter that I can use to access these RNA-seq data?

More Information: https://dknet.org/about/webinar

May. 31, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Application Due: Limited Competition: Lasker Clinical Research Scholars Transition Award (R00 Clinical Trial Optional)

The Lasker Clinical Research Scholars Program supports research activities during the early stage careers of independent clinical researchers.  This FOA offers the opportunity for current Lasker awardees (Si2) to apply for the transition phase (R00) of the program.  In the R00 phase, successful Si2 scholars will receive up to 5 years of NIH support for their research at an extramural research facility.

More Information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/par-20-315.html 

Funding opportunities information and deadlines in May, 2021

May. 07, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Application Due: Multidisciplinary Studies of HIV/AIDS and Aging (R21 Clinical Trial Optional) 

This FOA encourages applications at the intersection of HIV and aging by addressing two overarching objectives: 1) to improve understanding of biological, clinical, and socio-behavioral aspects of aging through the lens of HIV infection and its treatment; and 2) to improve approaches for testing, prevention, and treatment of HIV infection, and management of HIV-related comorbidities, co-infections, and complications in different populations and cultural settings by applying our current understanding of aging science. Studies that move the science of HIV and aging into new directions with little or no preliminary data are appropriate for this activity code. Applications appropriate for this FOA should be consistent with the scientific priorities outlined by the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR) as described in NOT-OD-20-018.

More Information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/par-21-069.html

May. 07, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Application Due: Multidisciplinary Studies of HIV/AIDS and Aging (R01 Clinical Trial Optional) 

This FOA encourages applications at the intersection of HIV and aging by addressing two overarching objectives: 1) to improve understanding of biological, clinical, and socio-behavioral aspects of aging through the lens of HIV infection and its treatment; and 2) to improve approaches for testing, prevention, and treatment of HIV infection, and management of HIV-related comorbidities, co-infections, and complications in different populations and cultural settings by applying our current understanding of aging science. Applications appropriate to this FOA should be consistent with the scientific priorities outlined by the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR) as described in NOT-OD-20-018.

More Information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/par-21-068.html

May. 07, 2021

NIDDK Funding Opportunity Application Due: Priority HIV/AIDS Research within the Mission of the NIDDK (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) seeks to stimulate HIV/AIDS research within the mission of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) that align with the HIV/AIDS research priorities outlined by the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR). These priorities were most recently described in NOT-OD-20-018 UPDATE: NIH HIV/AIDS Research Priorities and Guidelines for Determining HIV/AIDS Funding.

More Information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/pas-21-031.html 

May. 07, 2021 

NIDDK Funding Opportunity Application Due: Pilot Studies of Biological, Behavioral and Social Mechanisms Contributing to HIV Pathogenesis Within the Mission of the NIDDK (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications for innovative basic and translational pilot research projects within the mission of the NIDDK that are aligned with NIH HIV/AIDS research priorities. These priorities were most recently outlined by the NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR) in NOT-20-018, UPDATE: NIH HIV/AIDS Research Priorities and Guidelines for Determining HIV/AIDS Funding, scientific priorities. Potential topics could address multiple overarching priorities. These include elucidation of unique pathophysiological mechanisms contributing to HIV comorbidities, coinfections, and complications (CCCs) affecting organs, tissues, and processes within the mission of the NIDDK. Likewise, interrogations into biological mechanisms underlying HIV reservoirs in NIDDK-relevant tissues are important for developing strategies for long-term viral suppression or eradication. Finally, health-impeding social determinants of health may affect CCCs or viral reservoirs within NIDDK's mission through multiple pathways.

More Information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/par-21-062.html 

May. 08, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity: Letter of Intent Due Development of Wearable Smart Devices for Continuous Monitoring of Circulating Nutrients, Metabolites and Hormones (R21/R33 Clinical Trial Required)

Recent advances in precision nutrition and circadian metabolism have come from studies utilizing continuous glucose monitors. However, diet leads to metabolic excursion of thousands of nutrients and metabolites, some linked to gut microbiota metabolism. Precision nutrition studies would benefit significantly from tools that can be used to monitor the metabolic excursions of other nutrients and metabolites in response to diet or other factors. Such data could help identify quantifiable links between the consumption of specific nutrients or food constituents and patho-physiological processes and the factors that impact health and disease susceptibility along with the factors leading to inter-individual variability in those links.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-20-134.html 

May. 08, 2021

NIH Funding Opportunity: Letter of Intent Due Gastrointestinal (GI and Microbiome Explorers: Development of Swallowable Smart Pills or Devices for Precision Nutrition, Microbiome and Digestive Disease Applications (R21/R33 Clinical Trial Required)

The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement is to support the development of tools/devices for sampling or monitoring of diet- gastro-intestinal (GI)(contents and mucosa) and microbial interactions (GI- Microbiome Explorer). It is anticipated that successful completion of the projects completed under this FOA will yield implementable devices/tools for gastroenterological research or other clinical applications, along with monitoring and sampling of GI contents and/or mucosa to examine diet-host-microbiome interactions for clinical research or diagnostic applications.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-20-133.html

May. 09, 2021 

NIDDK Funding Opportunity Letter of Intent Due: NIDDK High Risk Multi-Center Clinical Study Implementation Planning Cooperative Agreements (U34 Clinical Trial Optional) NIDDK supports investigator-initiated, high-risk multi-center (more than one center) clinical studies through a two-part process that may include an implementation planning cooperative agreement (U34). The U34 is designed to: 1) Permit early peer review of the rationale for the proposed clinical study; 2) Permit assessment of the design and protocol of the proposed study; 3) Provide support for the development of documents needed for the conduct of the study, including a manual of operations; and 4) Support the development of other essential elements required for the conduct of the clinical study. The proposed clinical study should be hypothesis-driven and focus on a disease in the mission of NIDDK. Consultation with NIDDK scientific staff is strongly encouraged prior to the submission of the U34 application.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/par-21-101.html

May. 10, 2021 

Request for Information (RFI) Submission Deadline: Use of Common Data Elements (CDEs) in NIH-funded research

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit public comment on the use of Common Data Elements (CDEs) in NIH-funded research, particularly in the context of research on COVID-19.

Common Data Elements (CDEs) are standardized, precisely defined questions paired with a set of specific allowable responses, used systematically across different sites, studies, or clinical trials to ensure consistent data collection. CDEs may consist of a single data element, such as height, gender, or date of birth, or a collection of connected questions, such as a survey instrument used as a depression index or a quality of life scale. For over a decade the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has encouraged the use and development of CDEs in patient registries, clinical studies, and other human subjects research. Use of common data elements fosters rigor and responsibility in research, and re-use of properly consented data for future research projects. Resources like the NIH CDE Repository (hosted by the National Library of Medicine, NLM), PhenX, and the NIH Disaster Research Response (DR2) resource help promote awareness and facilitate use of CDEs.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-LM-21-005.html

May. 10, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Application Due: Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements for Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) Phase I Projects to Address Vaccine Hesitancy and Uptake

This Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) seeks to support administrative supplements to Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADxSM-UP) recipients to address the urgent need to expand outreach and education efforts to promote testing and foster vaccine confidence, acceptance, and uptake in underserved and vulnerable communities. These 1-year projects will develop, implement, and evaluate brief interventions at RADxSM-UP testing sites to maximize effective outreach, education, communication, and facilitate the dissemination and uptake of testing and vaccines in underserved and vulnerable communities. The funding for this supplement program is provided from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not-od-21-101.html 

May. 15, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Application Due: Notice of Special Interest to Encourage Eligible NIH HEAL Initiative Awardees to Apply for PA-20-222: Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) 

The NIH has a strong interest in the diversity of the NIH-funded research enterprise (see NIH notice NOT-OD-20-031) and encourages institutions to diversify their scientific workforce by increasing the participation of individuals from groups identified as underrepresented in the biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and social sciences. Participating institutes continue to support these efforts through ongoing programs and supplement funding opportunities. This specific notice reiterates this interest and encourages eligible grant and cooperative agreement awardees in the HEAL Initiative community to apply for administrative supplements in response to PA-20-222 (or any subsequent reissuances), Research Supplements to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research (Admin Supp - Clinical Trial Not Allowed). This notice is part of the NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative to speed scientific solutions to the national opioid public health crisis. The NIH HEAL Initiative is a trans-NIH effort to (1) improve prevention and treatment strategies for opioid misuse and addiction and (2) enhance pain management. More information about the HEAL Initiative is available at: https://heal.nih.gov/.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not-ns-20-107.html 

May. 15, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Application Due: Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements to Support Enhancement of Software Tools for Open Science

This Notice announces the continuing availability of administrative supplements NOT-OD-20-073 to active awards that focus on biomedical software development or have a significant software development component. The goal of these supplements is to invest in research software tools with recognized value in a scientific community to enhance their impact by leveraging best practices in software development and advances in cloud computing. This initiative is part of a plan for implementing the NIH Strategic Plan for Data Science which describes actions aimed at modernizing the biomedical research data ecosystem and making data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) with high impact for open science. The supplements are intended to support collaborations between biomedical scientists and software engineers to enhance the design, implementation, and “cloud-readiness” of research software. Through these awards, the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS) intends to help researchers who have developed scientifically valuable software to make tools sustainable, contribute to open science, and take advantage of new data science and computing paradigms.

Application due May 15, 2021.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not-od-21-091.html 

May. 16, 2021

NIDDK Funding Opportunity Application Due: Secondary Analyses in Obesity, Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R21 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) Application Due Date

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages R21 applications that propose to conduct secondary analyses of existing data sets relevant to diabetes and selected endocrine and metabolic diseases including thyroid, parathyroid and Cushing’s diseases and acromegaly; and genetic metabolic disease including cystic fibrosis, lysosomal storage diseases, and disorders of the urea cycle, amino acid metabolism and metal transport where the focus is on peripheral metabolism or organ function; obesity, liver diseases, alimentary GI tract diseases and nutrition; kidney, urologic, and hematologic diseases. The goal of this program is to facilitate research that explores innovative hypotheses through the use of existing data sets or data, for which the primary goal is data analysis and not preparation/presentation of data.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/pa-18-741.html

May. 20, 2021 

NIDDK Funding Opportunity Application Due: Diabetes Research Centers (P30 Clinical Trial Optional)

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites applications for Diabetes Research Centers that are designed to support and enhance the national research effort in diabetes, its complications, and related endocrine and metabolic diseases.  Diabetes Research Centers support two primary research-related activities:  Research Core services and a Pilot and Feasibility (P and F) program.  All activities pursued by Diabetes Research Centers are designed to enhance the efficiency, productivity, effectiveness, and multidisciplinary nature of research in Diabetes Research Center topic areas.  The NIDDK Diabetes Research Centers program in 2020 consists of 16 Centers each located at outstanding research institutions with documented programs of excellence in diabetes-related research.  General information about the NIDDK Diabetes Research Centers program may be found at www.diabetescenters.org.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/rfa-dk-20-025.html 

May. 20, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity: Notice of Special Interest - Support for existing data repositories to align with FAIR and TRUST principles and evaluate usage, utility, and impact

The goal of this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is to strengthen NIH-funded biomedical data repositories to better enable data discoverability, interoperability, and reuse by aligning with the FAIR and TRUST principles and using metrics to measure their effectiveness. This NOSI provides an opportunity for existing repositories to increase ”FAIR”-ness and “TRUST”-worthiness to improve their usage, utility, and impact throughout the data resource lifecycle.

Application Due May 20, 2021 

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not-od-21-089.html  

May. 22, 2021 

NIDDK Funding Opportunity Letter of Intent Due: Pilot and Feasibility Studies to Facilitate the Use of Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support to Improve Diabetes Care (R34 Clinical Trial Required)

The purpose of this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is to test an innovative and pragmatic approach to address barriers to and facilitate greater use of diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) by people living with diabetes mellitus. Research applications should engage key stakeholders in cultivating a practical and sustainable strategy with the potential for dissemination. The pilot trial of the proposed strategy should be designed to generate preliminary data in support of a future, full-scale trial to study broader dissemination and implementation to expand the use of DSMES.  

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DK-20-032.html

May. 22, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Letter of Intent Due: Immune Cell Engineering For Targeted Therapy And Disease Monitoring in Type 1 Diabetes (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

This initiative will support the engineering of immune cells to target the human pancreatic compartment to report on previously inaccessible information about diabetes initiation and progression, and/or to deliver environment-specific therapeutic responses to restore islet health and prevent the progression to T1D.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DK-21-005.html 

May. 22, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Letter of Intent Due: The Autoantigens and Neoantigens Function in the Etiology and Pathophysiology of Type 1 Diabetes (R01 Clinical Trial Optional)

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) encourages applications from institutions and organizations proposing original research aimed at the characterization of the function of neoepitopes and neoantigens in type 1 diabetes. This includes the function that post-translational modifications might have in the humoral and cell mediated autoimmune responses and overall in the etiology and pathophysiology of type 1 diabetes. Applications that include the discovery of neoantigens or neoepitopes are within the scope of this solicitation, but should propose a plan for integrating these discoveries with the present knowledge on established epitopes and antigens (e.g. autoantibodies for insulin, GAD65, IA-2, and ZnT8). In the long-term the goals of this initiative are to facilitate the development of better tools to monitor disease progression and treatment, and potentially to facilitate the development of personalized therapeutics.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/rfa-dk-21-004.html

May. 24, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Application Due: Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Emergency Competitive Revisions for Community-engaged COVID-19 Testing Interventions among Underserved and Vulnerable Populations – RADx-UP Phase II (Emergency Supplement - Clinical Trial Optional)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) are issuing this NOSI in response to the declared public health emergency issued by the Secretary, HHS, for 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19). This NOSI provides an expedited funding mechanism to support Phase II of the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics – Underserved Populations (RADxSM-UP) initiative. These two-year Testing Research Projects will (1) expand the scope and reach of RADxSM-UP testing interventions to reduce COVID-19 disparities among underserved and vulnerable populations and (2) address scientific questions on interventions to increase access and uptake of COVID-19 testing given the increasing availability of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. The funding for RADxSM-UP is provided from the American Rescue Plan Act of 202. The NIH Office of the Director (OD) is issuing this NOSI to request competitive revision applications addressing the objectives described below. This NOSI is one of four related RADxSM-UP funding opportunities. This Testing Research Projects NOSI will support research teams with established community-engaged partnerships to address the scientific objectives described herein.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/not-od-21-103.html 

May. 25, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Letter of Intent Due: Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH) (S06 Clinical Trials Optional) 

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences, in conjunction with the Institutes/Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) listed above in the "Components of Participating Organizations" section and the Indian Health Service (IHS), invites applications from federally recognized Tribes and Tribal organizations for the Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH) initiative. The objective of the NARCH initiative is to support biomedical research and career enhancement opportunities to meet health needs prioritized by American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities.  The NARCH initiative also supports research capacity building and the development of research infrastructure to enhance the biomedical research capabilities of AI/AN communities.

More information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-20-125.html

May. 26, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Application Due: Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

The Stephen I. Katz Early Stage Investigator Research Project Grant supports an innovative project that represents a change in research direction for an early stage investigator (ESI) and for which no preliminary data exist. Applications submitted to this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) must not include preliminary data. Applications must include a separate attachment describing the change in research direction. The proposed project must be related to the programmatic interests of one or more of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs) based on their scientific missions. This Funding Opportunity Announcement does not accept applications proposing clinical trials.

More Information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/par-21-038.html

May. 26, 2021 

NIH Funding Opportunity Application Due: Support for Research Excellence (SuRE) Award (R16 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

SuRE is a research capacity building program designed to develop and sustain research excellence in U.S. higher education institutions that receive limited NIH research support and serve students from groups underrepresented in biomedical research NOT-OD-20-031 with an emphasis on providing students with research opportunities and enriching the research environment at the applicant institutions.

The purpose of SuRE awards is to provide research grant support for faculty investigators who have prior experience in leading externally-funded, independent research but are not currently funded by any NIH Research Project Grants with the exception of SuRE or SuRE-First awards.

More Information: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/par-21-169.html