| ID | Title | Body | Facebook Description | Facebook image | Facebook Title | Facebook Video | Twitter Description | Twitter Image | Twitter Title | Meta tags |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15097 | Post-Award Grant Actions: Prior Approval and Reporting of Research with Human Subjects and/or Vertebrate Animals | The following instructions are provided to assist CTSA Program hubs in determining when prior approval for research with human subjects and/or vertebrate animals is required and how the CTSA Pilot Awards and KL2 scholar research projects should be reported. Key Definitions Direct Funding: Full and/or partial funding allocated directly to the pilot project from the federal funds awarded to a CTSA Program hub UL1 award. Voluntary Committed Cost Share: In accordance with Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200.306, Voluntary Committed Cost Share is cost sharing pledged by the grantee institution on a voluntary basis that is quantified in either the proposal budget and/or narrative and becomes a binding requirement of the award. Voluntary Uncommitted Cost Share: Any effort or resource contributed to a sponsored award that was not included in either the proposal budget and/or narrative or committed to the sponsor prior to award. Prior Approval Consistent with the U.S. Department of Human and Health Services regulations (45 CFR 46.120) and NIH policies on human subjects protections and vertebrate animals, NCATS awardees must seek approval from NCATS to conduct research involving human subjects and vertebrate animals that was not described in the original, peer-reviewed grant application. For CTSA UL1 pilot projects supported via direct and/or voluntary committed cost share, NCATS prior approval must be received prior to starting any new research involving human subjects that is considered greater than minimal risk, meets the threshold of a NIH defined clinical trial, or involves a foreign component. CTSA UL1 pilot projects that are minimal risk, do not meet the NIH clinical trial definition and do not involve a foreign component, may proceed once all required documentation has been submitted via the HSS system and NCATS has been notified. New CTSA UL1 pilot projects involving animal subjects must receive NCATS prior approval before the study can begin. KL2 scholar projects involving human or animal subjects that receive any direct funding and/or voluntary committed cost share must receive NCATS prior approval before the study may begin. Generally, TL1-supported trainees will work on projects supported by other research grants rather than being funded through the TL1 award. If a trainee supported on the TL1 embarks on an independent research project funded through the CTSA Program hub that includes human subjects and/or vertebrate animals and is independent of the mentor’s research projects, prior approval may be required. In this instance, it is the grantee institution’s responsibility to confirm with the assigned Program Official and Grants Management Specialist whether prior approval is required. Per NIH Grants Policy, prior approval requests must be submitted no later than 30 days before the proposed activity occurs. Failure to comply with the NIH terms and conditions of award may cause NIH to take one or more actions, including but not limited to disallowance of all or part of the costs of the activity or action not in compliance. Generally, NCATS will respond within 30 days of receiving a complete request. Please note that if a request is returned for any reason, the 30-day turnaround time resets. When NCATS requests clarification on a human subjects research prior approval request, the institution should submit only the questioned/corrected documents via the electronic Research Administration (eRA) Human Subjects System (HSS) module. Similarly, when NCATS requests clarification on a vertebrate animals prior approval request, the institution should submit only the questioned/corrected documents to the Program Official and Grants Management Specialist via email. Institutional Review Board and/or Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approval of the research project is always required prior to the submission of a human subjects or vertebrate animal Prior Approval request to NCATS. It is NCATS’ goal to complete the prior approval review process efficiently, so it is important for all necessary documents to be submitted and to promptly respond to inquiries. NCATS Division of Extramural Activities staff will email the Institutional Signing Official with a copy to the CTSA Program PI to notify the grantee institution of prior approval request decisions. Research with human cell lines or tissue repositories that meet the definition of human subjects research requires prior approval. Prior Approval Submission Instructions for Research Involving: Human Subjects: https://ctsa.ncats.nih.gov/governance-guidelines/guidelines/new-projects-with-human-subjects-research/ Vertebrate Animals: https://ctsa.ncats.nih.gov/governance-guidelines/guidelines/prior-approval-of-planned-research-involving-live-vertebrate-animals/ Pilot Projects It is strongly recommended that grantee institutions not mix and match sources of funding that have different prior approval requirements. For example, grantee institutions should not partially fund a pilot project with direct funding and voluntary uncommitted cost share. Source of Pilot Funds Prior Approval Required Prior Approval Required Direct Funding Yes Voluntary Committed Cost Share Yes Voluntary Uncommitted Cost Share No KL2 Projects KL2 scholars (and other NIH career development [K] awardees) are eligible to receive pilot project awards. Per NIH Grants Policy (here and in the NIH Notice NOT-OD-17-094) for effort directly committed to the career development award, salary supplementation is allowable but must be from non-Federal sources (including institutional sources). In no case may Public Health Service funds be used for such salary supplementation. Non-Federal or institutional supplementation of salary must not require extra duties or responsibilities that would interfere with the goals of the career development award. For effort not directly committed to the career development award, career development awardee recipients may devote effort, with compensation, on Federal or non-Federal grants as the Program Director/Principal Investigator (PD/PI) or in another role (e.g., co-Investigator), as long as the specific aims of the other supporting grant(s) differ from those of the career development awardee. Therefore, KL2 scholar salaries should not be included in the budget of a pilot project prior approval request. KL2 appointments may be made prior to the submission of prior approval for human subjects and/or vertebrate animal research projects. The KL2 appointment is a separate process through xTrain: https://era.nih.gov/help-tutorials/xtrain. Reporting Grantee institutions are required to include information on NCATS CTSA Program–funded pilot studies in the annual Research Performance Project Report (RPPR) submission. Pilot Projects It is strongly recommended that grantee institutions not mix and match sources of funding that have different reporting requirements. For example, grantee institutions should not partially fund a pilot project with direct funding and voluntary uncommitted cost share. Source of Pilot Funds Source of Pilot Funds RPPR Reporting Required* Direct Funding Yes Voluntary Committed Cost Share Yes Voluntary Uncommitted Cost Share No (Please refer to the instructions below**) *Refer to the CTSA Program RPPR Specific Reporting instructions for detailed reporting requirements for pilot projects that receive any direct funding and/or voluntary committed cost share. (See: https://ctsa.ncats.nih.gov/governance-guidelines/guidelines/rppr-instructions/) **For publications resulting from pilot projects funded via voluntary uncommitted cost share, grantee institutions may choose to follow the NIH guidance provided in NOT-OD-16-079—Reporting Instructions for Publications Supported by Shared Resources in Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPR) and Renewal Applications. Per this Guide Notice, if an NIH award’s only contribution to a publication is a shared resource, awardees can opt to list and/or summarize these publications in Section B.2 of the RPPR with the subtitle “Shared Resources.” Publications listed or summarized in this section will not count against the section’s two-page limit and are not required to be tracked and monitored for the purposes of public access compliance. Pilot projects without publications but supported via voluntary uncommitted cost share may also be reported in this same manner in order to document the value of their shared resources developed through the CTSA Program hub award. Note: Grantee institutions are responsible for public access compliance of all publications listed in Section C.1 of an RPPR. KL2 KL2 scholar research projects that are funded through the UL1 pilot program (as described above) must be reported in the UL1 RPPR. KL2 scholar research projects funded through the KL2 must be reported in the KL2 RPPR. Project Duration and Carryover The pilot project activity may cross over budget periods. However, per NIH Grants Policy and the Notice of Award, the institution CANNOT carry over funds from one budget period to another without NIH prior approval. Repeated prior approval requests to transfer funds from one budget period to another for the same/similar program costs will be denied. Please work with your Office of Sponsored Programs to establish your pilot program in a manner that complies with NIH Grants Policy and avoids setting up a need for continual carryover requests for pilot program funds. Additional Resources NOT-OD-15-129: Prior NIH Approval of Human Subjects Research in Active Awards Initially Submitted without Definitive Plans for Human Subjects Involvement (Delayed Onset Awards): Updated Notice. Examples of Enhancing Quality and Efficiency in the Prior Approval Process: presented during the CTSA Program Webinar—3/28/2018 https://clic-ctsa.org/node/2606 NCATS Prior Approval Process @NCTraCS, Marie Rape, Associate Director NC TraCS Regulatory, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Prior Approval, Erin Breed, Program Manager, University of California, San Francisco Clinical & Translational Science Institute (CTSI) Questions? Comments and questions about this process? Email: NCATSDOPAinquiry@mail.nih.gov | Prior Approval and Reporting of Research with Human Subjects... | Prior Approval and Reporting of Research with Human Subjects... | ||||||
| 15106 | Unexpectedly Following a Translational Science Path | February 22, 2022Former NCATS postbaccalaureate (postbac) fellow Rosita Asawa knew she wanted to be a scientist by middle school.“I loved reading science books as a child,” said Asawa, now 25, standing in front of her scientific poster on display in the atrium of the Natcher Building on NIH’s Bethesda campus last spring. “I decided somewhere around 7th or 8th grade that I was going to be a scientist.”After completing an NCATS summer internship in 2016, followed by three years as a fellow, she realized that translational science combines her interests in both medicine and basic research.“Translational science is the perfect area to be in because I want to have a direct impact both on patients and also on the process of getting treatments to patients,” explained Asawa.Training and Research Opportunities AboundNCATS supports training and career development programs that provide important skills, knowledge, perspectives and experiences that are critical for building the translational science workforce. The NCATS postbac program includes a seminar series, professional development opportunities and a strong network of peers and mentors. Interest in NCATS postbac (and postdoctoral) opportunities is growing: The number of NCATS’ postbac fellows has increased from 15 in 2012 to 24 in 2019. Asawa was among 20 fellows who took part in this year’s NCATS Postbac Poster Day.“Part of the reason I have loved this postbac experience is that it provided the opportunity to talk to so many experts in different fields,” Asawa said. “I’ve asked people about their career paths. I’ve shadowed people, including physician-scientists.”Asawa’s research interests are wide-ranging. In one project, she investigated new uses of medicines already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Many research projects at NCATS focus on studying the use of old drugs in new ways. Asawa worked with researchers at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to identify pediatric drugs that also might be repurposed to treat pediatric cancers. Likewise, in another project (the subject of her poster presentation), she collaborated with scientists at the University of California, Davis, to repurpose compounds for polycystic kidney disease.In her most recent research project, Asawa and her NCATS colleagues further developed a technique to measure how small molecules or drugs interact with an intended target inside a cell. She spearheaded efforts in the laboratory to determine whether the technology could be useful against a set of proteins with implications for cancer. She was grateful for the opportunity to play an active role in making decisions and moving a project forward.A New Field to ExploreThe translational science spectrum represents each stage of research along the path from the biological basis of health and disease to interventions that improve the health of individuals and the public. (NCATS)Asawa grew up in Steubenville, Ohio, a small blue-collar town at the Pennsylvania border. Her father is a construction worker, and her mother works in their home. A professor at Asawa’s college, Franciscan University of Steubenville, helped connect Asawa to opportunities at the NIH, including summer internships.Asawa wasn’t aware of translational science as a field until she came to NCATS and the Division of Preclinical Innovation, which focuses on finding ways to make science faster and more efficient, including speeding up the development of treatments to patients. Asawa recalled, “I hit the ground running and was exposed to technologies at NCATS I had never seen before,” such as high-throughput screening, which entails testing thousands of compounds at once for their biological activity and potential use in therapy.As she spent more time at NCATS, she wanted to learn more about the entire translational process—not only the preclinical aspects of research. She wanted to see where the process ultimately led and how the work could help patients.Prolific, Focused and DeterminedNCATS research scientist Natalia Martinez, Ph.D., mentored Asawa throughout her three years as a postbac fellow.“The NCATS postbac program provides students with an incredible opportunity and experience,” she explained. “They are getting exposed to translational science and a research environment—it’s a win for us to have such talented students and a win for them, as it helps their applications to graduate or medical school.”The numbers indicate the NCATS postbac program has prepared fellows to be successful with their applications to a wide variety of programs. This year, seven fellows are pursuing Ph.D. degrees ranging from organic chemistry to biomedical science to plant pathology. Two fellows are pursuing joint M.D.-Ph.D. programs, while others are attending dental school, medical school and a physician assistant program.Asawa started an M.D.-Ph.D. program at the University of Maryland this fall. She’s happy with her decision to postpone graduate school until this fall. “One of the main reasons I wanted a postbac was to make sure I still loved science after doing it 40 hours a week. It turned out that I still do.”Asawa already is a published author, including two papers on which she is first author—a significant honor for any scientist, let alone a postbac fellow. She plans to continue writing research manuscripts from her group’s work at NCATS, even while in school.Asawa’s advice to others applying to internships or postbac programs? “Try as many different paths as possible and talk to as many people as you can. Take advantage of the opportunity while you are at NIH to explore and ask questions. You never know where your curiosity will take you.” | Postbac Profile on Rosita Asawa E-Newsletter Blurb and Promo Content | Postbac Profile on Rosita Asawa E-Newsletter Blurb and Promo Content | ||||||
| 15079 | Artificial/Machine Intelligence | * { box-sizing: border-box; } .row { display: -ms-flexbox; /* IE10 */ display: flex; -ms-flex-wrap: wrap; /* IE10 */ flex-wrap: wrap; padding: 0 2px; } /* Create two equal columns that sits next to each other */ .column { -ms-flex: 50%; flex: 50%; max-width: 50%; padding: 0 4px; } .column img { margin-top: 4px; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } /* Responsive layout - makes a two column-layout instead of four columns */ @media screen and (max-width: 800px) { .column { -ms-flex: 50%; flex: 50%; max-width: 50%; } } /* Responsive layout - makes the two columns stack on top of each other instead of next to each other */ @media screen and (max-width: 600px) { .column { -ms-flex: 100%; flex: 100%; max-width: 100%; } } #photos { position: relative; } #photos a { margin: 0 auto; padding: 0; text-decoration: none; color: #fff; } #photos img { position: relative; float: left; width: 100%; } #photos p { padding: 3% 0 0 10%; position: absolute; max-width: 100%; font-family: "Dancing Script",cursive; color: #fff; font-size: 24px; } /*.border:after { content: ''; display: block; background: url('/files/MI_Header_1100x420.png') center center no-repeat; width:100%; height:258px; position: absolute; bottom: -258px; }*/ (function ($) { $( ".border" ).after( "" ); })(jQuery); Artificial/Machine Intelligence (A/MI) is rapidly becoming an important data science-based analytic tool across biomedical discovery, clinical research, medical diagnostics and devices, and precision medicine. Such tools and systems can uncover new possibilities for researchers, physicians, and patients, allowing them to make more informed decisions and achieve better outcomes. When deployed, these systems have the potential to enhance efficiency of the health research and care system. NIH Workshop: Machine Intelligence in Healthcare: Perspectives on Trustworthiness, Explainability, Usability and Transparency In the context of this workshop, MI was defined as the ability of a trained computer system to provide rational, unbiased guidance to humans in such a way that achieves optimal outcomes in a range of environments and circumstances. With such promise for applications of MI tools in the healthcare system, the challenges are: how do we trust that what the computer tells us is correct when we don’t understand how it arrived at the output/answer? How do we ensure that these outputs are safe and beneficial for human health? And, if we change the data or environment, how does this affect the output? These questions are especially relevant to clinical care decision making – are the risks of using such tools understood and how can the technology be deployed for maximal benefit? This workshop was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and organized jointly with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). For more information, please contact Karlie Sharma (Karlie.sharma@nih.gov) or Christine Cutillo (cutilloc@mail.nih.gov). Goal To provide experts and the community the opportunity to share their perspectives on current issues associated with incorporation of MI systems into healthcare settings. Meeting outputs were used to develop a white paper on translating MI for clinical applications and the associated process improvement needed when implementing MI systems in healthcare environments. Agenda and Slides Workshop Breakdown Speaker Biographies Videocast link | /sites/default/files/AI_banner_media_1.png | Artificial/Machine Intelligence | /sites/default/files/AI_banner_media_0.png | Artificial/Machine Intelligence | ||||
| 15076 | Machine Intelligence in Healthcare – Agenda | .agendaHighlight{ background-color:#cbebe8; font-weight: bold; padding:5px;} table tr td {border:0px; vertical-align:top;} table tr th {border:0px; width:10%; vertical-align:top;} Goal To provide experts and the community the opportunity to share their perspectives on current issues associated with incorporation of MI systems into healthcare settings. Meeting outputs will be used to develop a whitepaper on translating MI for clinical applications and the associated process improvement needed when implementing MI systems in healthcare environments. Agenda (to download Speaker Bios and Presentations please click the underlined links below) 8:00 AM: REGISTRATION 8:30 AM: WELCOME AND WORKSHOP OVERVIEW Joni Rutter, PhD, Deputy Director, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health Bruce J. Tromberg, PhD, Director, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health 8:45 AM: SESSION 1: TRUSTWORTHINESS 8:45 AM: Introduction to Session 8:50 AM: Trustworthiness of Patient Generated Health Data Session Chair: Luca Foschini, PhD, Co-founder and Chief Data Scientist, Evidation Health 9:00 AM: How Can We Trust Intelligence (Human or Machine) for Guiding Healthcare Decisions? Brian Alper, MD, MSPH, FAAFP, Founder of DynaMed and Vice President of Innovations and Evidence-Based Medicine Development for EBSCO Health 9:10 AM: An Evaluation of Machine Intelligence Tools to Diagnose Genetic Diseases in Critically Ill Infants Michelle Clark, PhD, Statistical Scientist, Rady Children’s Insitute for Genomic Medicine 9:20 AM: How to Trust, but Verify, in Healthcare Nigam Shah, MBBS, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Biomedical Informatics) and of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University 9:30 AM: Panel Discussion 10:15 AM: BREAK 10:30 AM: SESSION 2: EXPLAINABILITY 10:30 AM: Introduction to Session 10:35 AM: A Roadmap for AI in Healthcare Session Chair: Shinjini Kundu, MD, PhD, Medical Researcher and Resident Physician, Department of Radiology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital 10:45 AM: Approaches for Explainability of AI-enabled Systems in Medical Imaging Berkman Sahiner, PhD, Senior Biomedical Research Scientist at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 10:55 AM: Explainability and Understanding for Deep Learning Models Sanji Fernando, Senior Vice President of Artificial Intelligence and Analytics Platforms, OptumHealth 11:05 AM: The Importance of Algorithmic Explainability in Behavioral Health Colin Walsh, MD, MA, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Medicine and Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University Medical Center 11:15 AM: Panel Discussion 12:00 PM: LUNCH 1:15 PM: SESSION 3: USABILITY 1:15 PM: Introduction to Session 1:20 PM: Moving AI to the Point of Care Session Chair: Kenneth Mandl, MD, MPH, Donald A.B. Lindberg Professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School 1:30 PM: Usability Lessons Applicable to MI Chris Dymek, EdD, Director, Division of Health Information Technology, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 1:40 PM: Deep Care Management at Duke, Lessons in Using MI in a Medicare Population Erich Senin Huang, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University 1:50 PM: Zero-Overhead Contactless Sensors for Health Monitoring Dina Katabi, PhD, Andrew and Ema Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2:00 PM: Panel Discussion 2:45 PM: BREAK 3:00 PM: SESSION 4: TRANSPARENCY AND FAIRNESS 3:00 PM: Introduction to Session 3:05 PM: Machine Intelligence in Healthcare – Precision Medicine Analytics Platform Sezin Palmer, Mission Area Executive for National Health, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory 3:15 PM: Learning Healthy Models for Healthcare - What Transparency is Needed to Deploy Models in Healthcare? Marzyeh Ghassemi, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Medicine, University of Toronto 3:25 PM: Vulnerabilities in Machine Learning S. Matthew Liao, AB, Dphil, Director of the Center for Bioethics, College of Global Public Health, New York University 3:35 PM: Thinking About Transparency and Fairness at Scale: The Workforce, Providers and Suppliers Session Chair: Maxine Mackintosh, Researcher, Alan Turing Institute and Co-Founder, One HealthTech 3:45 PM: Panel Discussion 4:30 PM: WRAP-UP AND CONCLUSIONS Session 1 – Session Chair Luca Foschini Session 2 – Session Chair Shinjini Kundu Session 3 – Session Chair Kenneth Mandl Session 4 – Session Chair Maxine Mackintosh 5:00 PM: ADJOURN | Machine intelligence in Healthcare - Agenda | Machine intelligence in Healthcare - Agenda | ||||||
| 15202 | ASPIRE Funding | Current Opportunities There are no open funding opportunities at this time. Expired Funding Announcements NOT-TR-18-301: HEAL Initiative: Announcement of the NCATS ASPIRE Design Challenges to Develop Innovative and Catalytic Approaches Towards Solving the Opioid Crisis The goal of the inaugural NCATS ASPIRE Design Challenges is to develop innovative and catalytic approaches toward solving the opioid crisis through development of (1) novel chemistries; (2) data-mining and analysis tools and technologies; and (3) biological assays that will revolutionize discovery, development and preclinical testing of the next-generation, safer and non-addictive analgesics to treat pain, as well as new treatments for opioid use disorder and overdose. The total prize purse for each challenge is $500,000. Learn more about the challenges. The NCATS ASPIRE Challenges are part of The Helping to End Addiction Long-termSM Initiative to speed scientific solutions to the national opioid public health crisis. | Funding | Funding | ||||||
| 15208 | A Specialized Platform for Innovative Research Exploration (ASPIRE) | #featured-stories > #secondary-image > .img-responsive { min-height: 312px; } By addressing long-standing challenges in the field of chemistry, including lack of standardization, low reproducibility and inability to predict how new chemicals will behave, ASPIRE is designed to bring novel, safe and effective treatments to more patients more quickly at lower cost. Learn More. | ||||||||
| 14920 | NCATS-Supported Research Reduces Time to Diagnosis for Seriously Ill Children with Genetic Diseases | Dr. Stephen Kingsmore, President and CEO of Rady Children's Institute for Genomic MedicineCredit: Rady Children's Institute for Genomic MedicineMarch 11, 2022Seriously ill children with genetic diseases, particularly infants in intensive care units for whom every hour and day is critical, might now be diagnosed and treated far more quickly than in the past.In recent years, a technology called rapid whole-genome sequencing has been a successful first step to achieving faster diagnoses. The results of rapid whole-genome sequencing, however, must be interpreted by highly specialized individuals who are not always available when and where children need them. This has made it challenging to implement the technology at the point of care.A group of researchers led by Stephen F. Kingsmore at the Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine has developed a new automated machine-learning approach for diagnosing these children more quickly—combining rapid whole-genome sequencing with automated phenotyping and interpretation. This approach helps achieve a diagnosis by comparing a patient’s genomic results with clinical information from electronic health records and elsewhere, reducing the need for labor-intensive manual analysis of genomic data. Automating this step significantly decreases the time to diagnosis and, consequently, the time to initiating appropriate treatment. The researchers described their results in a paper published in the April 24, 2019, issue of Science Translational Medicine. This new approach to diagnosing genetic diseases speeds answers to physicians caring for seriously ill children, ultimately leading to better outcomes.This research was supported in part by an NCATS Clinical and Translational Science Award Program Collaborative Innovation Award. These awards are designed to support collaborative translational science innovations that benefit public health. | NCATS-Supported Research Reduces Time | NCATS-Supported Research Reduces Time | ||||||
| 14938 | Ask an Astronaut: Biomedical Science Edition | NCATS collaborated with The Children's Inn at NIH, the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) and the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory (ISS National Lab) to host Ask an Astronaut: Biomedical Science Edition. The event took place Monday, September 23, 2019, at The Children’s Inn on the NIH Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. This unique experience provided children receiving care at NIH the opportunity to talk to an astronaut in space. Participants learned about the importance of conducting biomedical research in a microgravity environment, including NCATS' Tissue Chips in Space projects that recently completed their first mission to the ISS. NASA astronaut Nick Hague, currently living aboard the International Space Station, was chosen to share his experience in space and answer questions from children residing at The Children’s Inn at NIH. Colonel Hague was selected by the NASA astronaut program in 2013. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to his selection to NASA’s 21st group of astronauts, Col. Hague was deployed to Iraq and taught classes at the U.S. Air Force Academy, including introductory astronautics and scuba diving. He is married to Lieutenant. Col. Catie Hague of the United States Air Force; has two children; and considers Hoxie, Kansas, his hometown. He was launched in March 2019 and will serve aboard the International Space Station as a flight engineer for Expeditions 59 and 60. How "Ask an Astronaut" Worked Children, or parents on their behalf, submitted questions for the astronaut in advance. Approximately 20 questions were preselected for children to ask the day of the event. When the event began, ARISS connected with the ISS to The Children’s Inn via ham radio. Once the connection was established, the children began asking questions, and the astronaut responded to each one. The ISS needed to be in the proper orbit with the connecting ham radio station on Earth, which means the transmission lasted no more than 10 minutes. Once the transmission was complete, the children asked additional questions of NCATS, The Children’s Inn and ARISS representatives in attendance. About the NCATS Tissue Chips in Space Program Image courtesy of NASA NCATS has partnered with the ISS National Lab to collaborate on refining tissue chip technology for biomedical research use on the space station. Translational research at the ISS National Lab provides unprecedented opportunities to study the effects of a microgravity environment on the human body. Tissue chip applications at the laboratory will enable studies of organs at the cell and tissue levels under reduced gravity, will contribute to our understanding of the process of aging and could reveal molecular targets that can slow that process. In December 2018, NCATS worked with NASA to launch the first NIH-supported tissue chips into space for research. In May 2019, four additional NCATS-funded tissue chip projects took their first mission to the ISS. About the ARISS Program Image courtesy of ARISS Through this ARISS program, the community becomes more aware of the substantial benefits of human spaceflight and the exploration and discovery that occur on spaceflight journeys. Participants learn about space technologies and the technologies involved with space communications through exploration of amateur radio. Amateur radio organizations and space agencies around the world sponsor this opportunity by providing the equipment and operational support to enable direct communication with crew on the ISS via amateur radio. Hundreds of amateur radio operators around the world work behind the scenes to make these educational experiences possible. About the ISS National Lab For more than 17 years, humans have lived and worked continuously onboard the ISS, advancing scientific knowledge, demonstrating new technologies and making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth that will enable long-duration exploration into deep space and benefit life here on our planet. A global endeavor, more than 230 people from 18 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 2,400 research investigations from researchers in more than 103 countries. Image courtesy of NASA | Ask an Astronaut: Biomedical Science Edition | Ask an Astronaut: Biomedical Science Edition | ||||||
| 14917 | NCATS BioPlanet: A Resource for Discovery | An example of pathways involved in autism in the BioPlanet database. When clicked, the interactive BioPlanet globe provides the name of specific pathways and its relationship to similar pathways.To better understand – and ultimately predict – how compounds and drugs affect the body or impact a disease, scientists examine biological pathways, complex cellular thoroughfares of chemical signals, chemical reactions and other processes that occur within and among cells. They can design assays, or tests, to determine what happens to a pathway when it is disrupted or altered, and how it matters to cells. But knowing which individual pathways to focus on can be challenging.To meet this challenge, NCATS scientists and their colleagues have created a one-of-a-kind database that details the body’s biological pathways. The new resource promises to help bridge a translational science gap by enabling researchers to more readily study gene activity, gather insights on disease mechanisms, shed light on when and how compounds are toxic to cells and more.“BioPlanet is a single collection of all known biological pathways operating in human cells. It is a general, comprehensive resource for the entire biological research community to use,” said NCATS scientist Ruili Huang, Ph.D. “Previously, researchers would have to go to different databases and not everyone had the skills to link data from those different sources.”BioPlanet is the first attempt to fill this void, and it took more than five years to build. The brainchild of former NCATS Director Christopher P. Austin, M.D., it combines data from seven pathway databases and incorporates 1,658 human pathways. The database is searchable by keywords, such as those that appear in a gene or pathway name or by disease. Scientists can visualize pathways on a three-dimensional globe, which inspired the name BioPlanet.Biological pathways frequently overlap and interact. BioPlanet allows researchers to study and analyze human pathways and how they connect. They can use the resource as a starting point for generating hypotheses and designing experiments to better understand how biological systems function and work together.For example, a researcher studying a set of disease-related genes can search the BioPlanet database for the corresponding biological pathways, then use that information to identify places, or targets, in a pathway that could be affected by a drug. Scientists can design assays to screen thousands of compounds to find those that work against such targets, and possibly, the disease. Similarly, scientists can use BioPlanet to create a set of assays to determine and predict the toxicity of compounds to cells.NCATS plans to continually expand and update BioPlanet. Because the resource currently includes only human pathways, there also are plans to add pathways for nonhuman species. Austin, Huang and their colleagues recently described BioPlanet in Frontiers in Pharmacology. | NCATS BioPlanet: A Resource for Discovery | NCATS BioPlanet: A Resource for Discovery | ||||||
| 14860 | NIH-NASA Activities | NCATS is the home for collaborations on biomedical research and public health with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The agencies work together to coordinate funding and collaboration opportunities, workshops and conferences, special interest groups and other activities across agencies. For more information, contact Danilo A. Tagle, Ph.D., NIH-NASA liaison point of contact. Meetings and Other Events 2021 NIH Space Chat with Astronaut Kate Rubins (March 26) 2020 BIO Convention (June 8–11) 2019 ISS R&D Conference (August 3–6) Ask an Astronaut: Biomedical Science Edition (September 23) International Astronautical Congress (October 21–25) Space Summit 2019 (October 14–15) American Society for Gravitational and Space Research Annual Meeting (November 19–23) 2018 Organs- and Tissues-on-Chips (D1) (April 8–12) NIH-NASA Projects Tissue Chips in Space (launched on SpX 16, 17, 20, 21 and 24) NCI NeXT program (launched on SpX 17) NCI RAS program (launched on SpX16) News 2020 Tissue Chip Trio to Orbit Earth for Answers to Osteoarthritis and Muscle Diseases (NCATS, December 2) Media Advisory: To Improve Health on Earth, NIH-Funded Tissue Chips Push New Boundaries in Space (NCATS, NIBIB, NIH) (March 2) 2019 NCATS-Supported Scientists Model Aging-Related Conditions in Space to Improve Human Health on Earth (NCATS) (April 24) 2018 NIH-Funded Tissue Chips Rocket to International Space Station (NCATS) (December 4) A Giant Leap Forward for Tissue Chip Research in Space (NASA) (November 8) 2017 CASIS, NCATS, and the NIBIB Announce International Space Station Funding Opportunity Focused on Human Physiology (CASIS) (December 4) CASIS and NCATS Announce Five Projects Selected from International Space Station Funding Opportunity Focused on Human Physiology Research (ISS/CASIS) (June 22) Astronaut Describes Experiences Aboard ISS, Sequencing DNA in Space (PDF - 1,848KB) (NIH) (June 2) 2016 SpaceChat Checks in on Science in the ‘Final Frontier’ (PDF - 2,146KB) (NIH) (November 4) NCATS, CASIS Announce Funding Opportunity to Conduct Tissue Chip Research in Space (NCATS) (October 5) NIBIB-Funded Space Experiment on Bone Health Successfully Launched Into Orbit (NIBIB) (July 19) The ISS National Lab and NCATS Collaborate to Promote Human Physiology Research on the International Space Station (Center for the Advancement of Science in Space) (July 12) 2015 Health Research Off the Earth, for the Earth (NASA) (April 17) Scientists Make No Bones about First Study of Osteocyte Cultures on Space Station (NASA) (April 10) Research with Space Explorers May One Day Heal Earth’s Warriors (NASA) (February 17) T-cell Activation in Aging — Studying Immune Function in Microgravity (NIA video) (January 26) Related Links NASA Human Research Program Research Opportunities How to Get Your Research onto and Operated on the ISS ISS National Laboratory Research Opportunities Funding and Information for Prospective Researchers Center for the Advancement of Science in Space Aerospace Medical Association | NIH-NASA Activities | NIH-NASA Activities |
Last updated on