Director's Message
Creating a new therapeutic is like constructing a building. Both are highly complex, multi-year endeavors that require the contributions of many different disciplines. In each case, a solid foundation is critical: A building constructed on sand and a drug developed on faulty science will both fail.
Read more in the latest Director's Message.
Christopher P. Austin, M.D.
What's New at NCATS?
Anton Simeonov Named NCATS Scientific Director
NCATS Announces CTSA Funding Opportunity
Modeling the Female Reproductive Tract in 3-D: The Birth of EVATAR™
Take a Virtual Tour of NCATS' Laboratories
NIH Encourages Stakeholders to Provide Strategic Planning Input
NCATS Holds Poster Day for Summer Interns
White House Announces NIH Expansion of Innovation Corps Training Opportunities
Researchers Publish Commentary on the Promise and Peril of Chemical Probes
NCATS Researchers Mentor Students in NIH HISTEP Program
NCATS Small Business Funding Opportunities Available
NCATS and FDA Host Assay Guidance Workshop for High-Throughput Screening and Lead Discovery
Videos: How Do Doctors Select the Best Treatment?
Collaborate with NCATS Scientists
Anton Simeonov Named NCATS Scientific Director
On Aug. 9, 2015, Anton Simeonov, Ph.D., was appointed scientific director at NCATS. Simeonov will lead the Center's work to develop, demonstrate and disseminate new technologies that make the pre-clinical stages of translational research more predictive, efficient and productive. Read the full announcement.
NCATS Announces CTSA Funding Opportunity
NCATS recently released a new funding opportunity for the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program. PAR-15-304 offers rolling application due dates, the first of which is Sept. 25, 2015. Learn more on the CTSA Funding Information page.
Modeling the Female Reproductive Tract in 3-D: The Birth of EVATAR™
A team of researchers in the Tissue Chip for Drug Screening program are making promising advances in the development of a tissue chip that models the female reproductive tract and liver. This EVATAR™ chip is designed to be used in drug testing and to study the basic biology of female reproduction. Read the full feature.
Take a Virtual Tour of NCATS' Laboratories
NCATS has released a video tour of its Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation laboratories. From biology to robotics to informatics to chemistry, this video demonstrates how NCATS researchers carry out pre-clinical drug development to test hundreds of thousands of potential drugs against disease-relevant assays (tests).
NIH Encourages Stakeholders to Provide Strategic Planning Input
NIH is developing an agency-wide, five-year strategic plan with the goal of outlining a vision for biomedical research that ultimately extends healthy life and reduces illness and disability. NIH stakeholders were invited through a request for information to review the framework and submit comments between July 22 and Aug. 16, 2015. Learn more on the NIH Strategic Planning page.
NCATS Holds Poster Day for Summer Interns
NCATS' pre-clinical researchers have been mentoring 26 students — ranging from high school to recent college graduate level — through the NIH Summer Internship Program in Biomedical Research. The interns recently presented their work during a poster session that showcased a wide range of projects in biology, automation and compound management, chemistry, and informatics.
Although NCATS scientists agreed all the research was impressive, they gave the top poster award to Rosita Asawa, a student at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio.
White House Announces NIH Expansion of Innovation Corps Training Opportunities
On Aug. 4, 2015, the White House announced that NIH is expanding its Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) training program to accelerate the commercialization of biomedical technologies developed with federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) funding. The NIH I-Corps program is a collaborative effort with the National Science Foundation (NSF), which established I-Corps team training to help accelerate the commercialization of early-stage biomedical technologies.
NIH's I-Corps program features activities that prepare scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the laboratory and broaden the impact of select research projects. The program is designed to teach researchers how to apply the scientific method to the entrepreneurship process to develop a repeatable and scalable business model. This approach aligns well with NCATS' goals of developing new resources and models, demonstrating their usefulness, and disseminating the methodologies to the community. Life science entrepreneurs learn the skills needed to navigate the complex regulatory and reimbursement landscape to bring new health products to the marketplace, including therapeutic drugs, medical devices and diagnostics.
The expanded initiative will enable training for up to 48 project teams currently supported with SBIR funds through NIH or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As part of the expansion, NSF's I-Corps "train-the-trainer" program will be offered to up to 10 institutions supported through NCATS' Clinical and Translational Science Awards program. The aim is to foster I-Corps leaders who in turn will provide entrepreneurship training for other translational scientists. These individuals also will help disseminate the best evidence-based practices in a systematic way to benefit a broad range of researchers and others.
Learn more about these opportunities via a White House fact sheet or the NSF news release.
Researchers Publish Commentary on the Promise and Peril of Chemical Probes
In the July 21, 2015, online issue of Nature Chemical Biology, authors of "The Promise and Peril of Chemical Probes" — including NCATS Director Christopher P. Austin, M.D. — describe how scientists can use high-quality probes to bridge the gap between biological research and the development of medicines. Read the commentary.
NCATS Researchers Mentor Students in NIH HISTEP Program
NCATS Director Christopher P. Austin, M.D., and NCATS' pre-clinical researchers hosted tours and shared advice and experiences with more than 30 high school students participating in NIH's High School Scientific Training and Enrichment Program (HISTEP). Through this program, students from underserved communities and financially disadvantaged schools have the chance to learn more about health care and research careers from NIH intramural researchers.
"What these students need are opportunities to further encourage their interest in science careers, and that is what the HISTEP program aims to provide," said Adam Yasgar, NCATS biologist and training coordinator.
The NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education and Office of Scientific Workforce Diversity lead the HISTEP program.
NCATS Small Business Funding Opportunities Available
NCATS has several funding opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. Interested applicants should contact NCATS-SBIRSTTR@mail.nih.gov to schedule a one-on-one meeting to discuss project or collaboration ideas.
SBIR/STTR Omnibus Solicitation: Applicants can submit investigator-initiated grant applications across a broad range of research areas. Applications due: Sept. 8, 2015, and Jan. 5, 2016.
SBIR Direct to Phase II: Companies that have a technology, prototype or method that has passed the proof-of-principle stage with demonstrated feasibility can apply for this grant. Applications due: Sept. 8, 2015, and Jan. 5, 2016.
- PAR-14-088: Biomedical Technology Development
- PAR-15-288: Extended Development, Hardening, and Dissemination of Technologies in Biomedical Computing, Informatics, and Big Data Science
SBIR Contracts: Contract funding opportunities are designed to advance technology areas of need. NCATS topics of interest include the areas below. Applications due: Oct. 16, 2015.
- Development of Stem Cell-based Assay for High-Throughput Screening of Chemicals of Toxicological Concern (013)
- Development of Smart Plate Technology (014)
Visit the Open Small Business Opportunities page to find more targeted grant solicitations.
NCATS and FDA Host Assay Guidance Workshop for High-Throughput Screening and Lead Discovery
Researchers from NCATS and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hosted the "Assay Guidance Workshop for High-Throughput Screening and Lead Discovery" in July 2015 at the Harvey W. Wiley Federal Building in College Park, Maryland. The goal of the workshop was to share best practices and advice for robust assay design and development with scientists who are new to the drug discovery community.
More than two hundred participants attended the event, including intramural researchers from all NIH Institutes and Centers, the FDA, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The workshop included seven lectures by leading drug discovery scientists and editors of the Assay Guidance Manual. A similar workshop will be held at the 2016 annual conference of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening in San Diego in January.
Videos: How Do Doctors Select the Best Treatment?
University of Washington and Stanford University Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program researchers recently released three videos to explain why and how doctors research common medical practices. Such evidence-based research can help guide providers in selecting the treatments that will work most effectively for each patient.
The brief, informational videos — part of an NIH-funded study on attitudes of patients and others toward this type of research — include the following:
- "Which Medication Is Best?" describes why different doctors might not choose the same treatment.
- "Approaches to Research on Medical Practices" explains the methods researchers use to compare treatments.
- "Informing or Asking" explores how researchers can inform patients about this kind of research.
This study and several others were supported with bioethics funds from the NIH Office of the Director and administered through NCATS' CTSA program. Watch the videos.
Meet More of NCATS' Key Staff
Christine M. Colvis, Ph.D., is director of drug development partnership programs in the NCATS Office of the Director; Andre M. Pilon, Ph.D., manages the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases program in the NCATS Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation. Learn more about Colvis and Pilon — and many other NCATS staff members — via NCATS' Staff Profile pages. Check back often to meet more of our team!
Upcoming Events
September
NCATS Advisory Council/CAN Review Board to Meet September 3
On Sept. 3, 2015, NCATS will hold a joint meeting of the NCATS Advisory Council and the Cures Acceleration Network (CAN) Review Board on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The meeting will feature presentations by NCATS leadership, Council and CAN Review Board members, and invited guests. Topics will include NCATS' Tissue Chip for Drug Screening and Clinical and Translational Science Awards programs, NIH and NCATS strategic planning, and a proposed initiative concept for consideration and clearance. For more information, visit the NCATS Advisory Council and CAN Review Board pages.
C&EN Virtual Symposium: Advances in Drug Discovery and Development
On Sept. 16, 2015, Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) will present its second annual virtual symposium highlighting groundbreaking research in drug discovery, chemical synthesis, informatics and drug development. Speakers, including NCATS Director Christopher P. Austin, M.D. (PDF - 39KB), will present the latest advances in identifying promising drug targets, verifying lead compounds and delivering more powerful, personalized drugs to the marketplace. For more information and to register, visit the online event page.
27th Annual Fanconi Anemia Research Fund Scientific Symposium
NCATS and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute will sponsor a three-day conference September 17–20 to discuss basic science, clinical and translational aspects of Fanconi anemia. This symposium will bring together an international group of leading scientists and physicians, invited keynote speakers, and special session presenters alongside approximately 45 oral abstract presentations, interspersed with panel presentations designed for greater interactivity. For more information, visit the conference website.
NCATS in the News
- Prestigious Research Grant Recognizes Collaboration by Buffalo's Medical Community • The Buffalo News • Aug. 21, 2015
- Wheeze, ED Visits Increase in Patients with Rhinovirus • Healio • Aug. 20, 2015
- Wake Forest Baptist Joins Consortium Aimed at Improving Health • Winston-Salem Journal • Aug. 20, 2015
- For a Rare Disease, Drug Trials Scramble for Patients • The Wall Street Journal • Aug. 19, 2015
- Research Reveals Unintended Consequences of Inappropriate Medical Food Use in Managing Patients with a Type of Metabolic Disorder • NIH • Aug. 13, 2015
- Bigger Families Mean More Infections, Study Finds • U.S. News & World Report • Aug. 6, 2015
- NIH Grant Supports Repurposing of Pain Drug for Chagas' Disease • Healio • Aug. 4, 2015
- Paralyzed Men Move Legs with New Non-Invasive Spinal Cord Stimulation • NCATS, NIBIB • July 30, 2015
- IU Researchers Work to Develop Treatment for PTSD • WISH-TV • July 30, 2015
- Chemical Probe Compounds: Time to Get Real • In the Pipeline • July 22, 2015
- Bioengineering: Big Potential in Tiny 3-D Heart Chambers • NIH Director's Blog • July 21, 2015
Collaborate with NCATS Scientists
NCATS researchers are seeking collaborators in the following areas:
Bridging Interventional Development Gaps (BrIDGs)
Through its BrIDGs program, NCATS assists researchers in advancing promising therapeutic agents through late-stage pre-clinical development toward an Investigational New Drug application and clinical testing. The 2015 project solicitation is coming soon; stay tuned to NCATS for more information.
NCATS Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC)
NCATS offers biomedical researchers access to large-scale screening capacity and medicinal chemistry and informatics expertise to develop chemical probe molecules. These resources can help scientists study the functions of genes, cells and biochemical pathways. For inquiries or to obtain NCGC probe molecules, contact Ajit Jadhav. NCATS researchers also seek collaborators for assay development and high-throughput screening, chemistry and chemistry technology, automation, and informatics.
NIH RNA Interference (RNAi) Initiative
Through the NIH RNAi initiative, NCATS provides state-of-the-art, high-throughput RNAi genome-wide screens for humans and mice to NIH intramural researchers. For more information, contact Madhu Lal-Nag, Ph.D.
Pfizer's Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) for NIH Researchers
NCATS is facilitating Pfizer's CTI program at NIH, which pairs NIH intramural researchers and clinicians with Pfizer resources to pursue scientific and medical advances through joint therapeutic development of biologic compounds. To apply, submit a completed pre-proposal brief to your NIH Institute or Center's technology transfer office by Oct. 16, 2015. Download the pre-proposal brief template (Word - 37KB) and view pre-proposal submission instructions.
Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND)
NCATS soon will be accepting proposals through its TRND program for collaborative projects that focus on pre-clinical and early clinical development of new drugs for rare and neglected tropical diseases. The 2015 project solicitation is coming soon; stay tuned to NCATS for more information.
Toxicology in the 21st Century (Tox21)
The goal of the Tox21 program is 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 a nomination form (PDF - 44KB) to Menghang Xia, Ph.D. Proposed assays must be compatible with the high-throughput screening guidelines described in the assay guidance criteria.