Director's Message
A New Phase of Innovation in Tissue Models for Therapeutic Testing
Many potential new drugs fail in human clinical trials despite early promise in animal or cell models of disease. Because these models often do not adequately represent human biology, they may not reflect accurately how patients will react to a drug, possibly giving false signals of either safety or effectiveness.
To address this critical translational barrier, NCATS is developing model testing systems that more closely resemble how human tissues and organs function. One example is our Tissue Chip for Drug Screening program, which was launched in 2012 in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Food and Drug Administration. In the initial phase of the Tissue Chip program, researchers successfully created miniature living tissue models about the size of a thumb drive. Dubbed "tissue chips," these models are made up of human-derived cells and replicate particular biological functions of organs, including the heart, liver and kidney. The progress of this work has been nothing short of breathtaking, demonstrating what can happen when multiple collaborators and technologies are brought to bear on an important translational problem.
I'm excited to report that the Tissue Chip program has now entered its next phase, which will focus on integrating individual tissue chips, linking them to mimic the connections in the body, and "test driving" the systems using drugs known to have beneficial or harmful effects. On Sept. 23, 2014, NIH announced new awards to 11 institutions that will work together in this next phase.
This technology aims to revolutionize the prediction of drug responses prior to human clinical trials and has enormous potential to save crucial research translation time and dollars. The program's successes to date have far exceeded my expectations, illustrating several of the core values of NCATS. We often say that translation is a team sport, and never more so in this program. Collaboration has been paramount, with investigators from different disciplines and institutions working together to create individual tissue chips that now will be integrated.
And in a great example of the catalytic nature of good science, applications for the tissue chips already are extending beyond the program's anticipated scope, providing the scientific community not just with ways to study novel drugs, but with systems in which to discover new principles of how organs function in health and disease. I am sure that the next phase of the program will bring about more exciting advances — both anticipated and yet unforeseen — moving us closer toward our goal of better predicting human drug responses and thus getting more treatments to more patients more quickly.
Christopher P. Austin, M.D.
Director
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
What's New at NCATS?
NCATS Leads Next Phase of Tissue Chip for Drug Screening Program
NCATS Extends CTSA Program Funding Opportunity Deadline
NCATS Science Featured at 28th NIH Research Festival
NCATS Advisory Council and CAN Review Board Meet for Joint Fall 2014 Session
NCATS Funding Opportunities for Small Business Innovation
Deadline Reminder: Toxicity Data Model Competition
Collaborate with NCATS Scientists
NCATS Leads Next Phase of Tissue Chip for Drug Screening Program
On Sept. 23, 2014, NIH announced new awards to support the next phase of the Tissue Chip for Drug Screening program, which is led by NCATS. The initiative is designed to improve ways of predicting drug safety and effectiveness in people.
With these new awards to 11 institutions at a total of $17 million in fiscal year 2014 funds, researchers will collaborate over the next three years to refine existing 3-D human tissue chips and combine them into an integrated system that can mimic the complex functions of the human body. In addition to NCATS, 14 other NIH Institutes and Centers are involved in the coordination of this program. Read the NIH news release and view the current projects.
NCATS Extends CTSA Program Funding Opportunity Deadline
On Sept. 12, 2014, NCATS released a new funding opportunity for the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program, a national network of medical research institutions collaborating to transform how clinical and translational science is conducted nationwide.
On Sept. 18, 2014, NIH posted NOT-TR-14-012: Notice of Change in the Application Due Date in RFA-TR-14-009 "Clinical and Translational Science Award (U54)", which extends the due date for applications to Jan. 15, 2015.
Revised key dates for this funding opportunity are:
- Dec. 15, 2014: Letters of Intent due
- Jan. 15, 2015: Applications due
- March/April 2015: Scientific merit review
- May 2015: Advisory Council review
- July 2015: Earliest start date
Learn more on the CTSA Web page.
NCATS Science Featured at 28th NIH Research Festival
Researchers from NCATS and other NIH Institutes and Centers recently gathered at the 28th NIH Research Festival to share important scientific advances made by intramural investigators during the past year. The annual event took place September 22–24 at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and included a concurrent symposium on high-throughput screening and probe discovery as well as posters co-authored by more than 30 NCATS scientists. Read the full feature.
NCATS Advisory Council and CAN Review Board Meet for Joint Fall 2014 Session
On Sept. 19, 2014, NCATS Director Christopher P. Austin, M.D., led a joint meeting of the NCATS Advisory Council and Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) Review Board on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.
"NCATS is pushing the envelope in innovation," Austin said. He presented the members with cards featuring new "NCATS definitions" of translation and translational science. During his director's report, Austin highlighted the Center's most recent scientific advances and outreach initiatives and provided updates on the NIH and Center budgets and related legislation.
Petra Kaufmann, M.D., M.Sc., NCATS director of clinical innovation, discussed a funding opportunity for the Clinical and Translational Science Awards program. Overarching components include informatics, integration of health and research, diversity, community engagement, quality assurance, and team science.
Additional presenters included:
- Council members Margaret Anderson, M.A., and Myrl Weinberg, M.A., who underscored the importance of accountability in patient and community engagement.
- Robert Finkelstein, Ph.D., National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, who presented data documenting an alarming decline in pure basic research at the Institute.
- D. Lansing Taylor, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh Drug Discovery Institute, who discussed progress of the Tissue Chip for Drug Screening program. Taylor's group is developing a liver chip designed for testing drug safety and effectiveness and for studying breast cancer that spreads to the liver.
View the archived videocast of the meeting.
NCATS Funding Opportunities for Small Business Innovation
NCATS has four current Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program funding opportunities to advance technology innovations. Apply now for one or more of these by the deadlines listed below:
- Bioreactors for Reparative Medicine (R43/R44 and R41/R42) support 3-D tissue and model development for heart, lung and blood tissues. Application Deadline: Oct. 10, 2014.
- NCATS 2015 SBIR/STTR Contracts support small businesses interested in developing innovative health technologies. NCATS topics can be found on pages 76-79. Application Deadline: Nov. 5, 2014.
- NCATS SBIR/STTR Grants support small business innovation research across a broad spectrum of topic areas. Next Application Deadline: Dec. 5, 2014.
- Platform Delivery Technologies for Nucleic Acid Therapeutics (R43/R44 and R41/R42) supports creation of new technologies and products for delivering nucleic acids into cells and tissues for the treatment or prevention of human disease, including rare diseases. Next Application Deadline: Dec. 5, 2014.
Contact the NCATS Office of Strategic Alliances or visit the Small Business Opportunities page for more information.
Deadline Reminder: Toxicity Data Model Competition
Don't forget to submit your work to the Toxicology in the 21st Century (Tox21) Data Challenge 2014, a crowdsourcing competition to develop computational models that can better predict chemical toxicity. The Tox21 initiative is designed to improve current toxicity assessment methods, which are slow and costly. The submission deadline is Nov. 14, 2014, 11:59 p.m. ET. NCATS will showcase the winning models in January 2015. Read the full announcement and register today!
Upcoming Events
October
16th Annual NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Conference
The 16th Annual NIH SBIR/STTR Conference will take place Oct. 21–23, 2014, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The event is designed to help small business representatives from the life sciences sectors learn more about approximately $700 million in annual NIH funding available to help forge academic partnerships and build new businesses based on recently developed biotechnology. Lili M. Portilla, M.P.A., NCATS director of strategic alliances, will participate in the event. For more information, visit the event website.
Addressing Irreproducibility in Target Validation
On Oct. 23, 2014, the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will host a one-day conference to address a growing concern among scientists and the public, who contend that the complex system for ensuring the reproducibility of biomedical research is failing and needs restructuring. The conference is planned around a series of talks and panels by industry, academia and government scientists, as well as editors from leading journals, to lend perspective and brainstorm practical solutions.
Next-Generation R&D Partnerships: The NCATS Success Story
NCATS Acting Scientific Director John C. McKew, Ph.D., will join the House Technology Transfer Caucus, the Center for Clean Energy Innovation, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, and a panel of leading experts to discuss the NCATS technology transfer model, successful case studies and lessons learned for other government agencies. The free event will take place from 10 – 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 29, 2014, at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. Learn more about this event, including how to register.
NCATS in the News
- Cool Videos: Rapping for Research • NIH Director's Blog • Sept. 25, 2014
- UK Scientists Complete Lengthy Study on Memory • The Lane Report • Sept. 24, 2014
- NIH Funds Next Phase of Tissue Chip for Drug Screening Program • NIH • Sept. 23, 2014
- UW-Madison Team Developing 'Tissue Chip' to Screen Neurological Toxins • University of Wisconsin–Madison • Sept. 23, 2014
- Pitt Drug Discovery Researchers Receive $5.8 Million Federal Grant to Build 3-D Liver Model • University of Pittsburgh • Sept. 23, 2014
- Patient Registries and the NIH/NCATS GRDR Program – An Interview with Yaffa Rubinstein • Rare Disease Report • Sept. 19, 2014
- Treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder • Wauwatosa Now • Sept. 19, 2014
- Videos Explain Concepts of Clinical Research • Stanford University • Sept. 19, 2014
- Exercise Can Enhance Tumor-Shrinking Effects of Chemotherapy • Medical News Today • Sept. 18, 2014
- New 'Cool Videos' from NIH Look at Alzheimer's, Heart Attacks, MS, Coral Reefs • The Washington Post • Sept. 15, 2014
- CTSA Program Funding Opportunity Now Available • NCATS • Sept. 12, 2014
- Multiple Sclerosis Trial for Lisinopril Granted $1.4 Million in New Funding From NCATS • Multiple Sclerosis News Today • Sept. 11, 2014
Collaborate with NCATS Scientists
NCATS researchers are seeking collaborators in the following areas:
NCATS Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC)
NCGC is one of the centers in the Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network (MLPCN), which is an NIH Common Fund initiative. Through the MLPCN, NCGC offers biomedical researchers access to large-scale screening capacity along with the medicinal chemistry and informatics expertise necessary to identify chemical probe molecules and to study the functions of genes, cells and biochemical pathways. For inquiries or to obtain NCGC probe molecules, contact Ajit Jadhav.
NCGC researchers also seek collaborators for assay development and high-throughput screening, chemistry and chemistry technology, automation, and informatics. Learn more.
NIH RNA Interference (RNAi) Initiative
The NIH RNAi initiative, administered by NCATS, provides state-of-the-art, high-throughput RNAi genome-wide screens for humans and mice. This resource is available only to NIH researchers. Scientists interested in performing high-throughput RNAi screens can contact Scott Martin, Ph.D., for more information.
Toxicology in the 21st Century (Tox21) Program
The Tox21 program aims to test 10,000 chemicals and evaluate their potential to cause health problems. Any investigator may propose the development of biological assays for high-throughput screening.
To suggest an assay, submit an assay nomination form to Menghang Xia, Ph.D. Proposed assays must be compatible with the high-throughput screening guidelines as described in the assay guidance criteria.