Outline of points from RFA

Aims

• Quantitative characterization of machinery inside living cells that underlies cell function and regulation
• Engineer molecular components and complexes to treat disease and/or repair tissue
  • Build new structures for biomedical

Methods

• Obtain detailed information on design of molecules and their assemblies
• Develop comprehensive models describing cellular structures
• Understand engineering principles employed in Nature's design
• Exploit these designs to repair cellular structures or to build new structures for biomedical use
• Develop novel experimental and modeling approaches
  • use engineering principles
  • gather information from living biological systems
  • imaging of structure
  • dynamic behavior of molecular assemblies
  • measurement of forces
  • develop comprehensive models
• Depart from established projects and propose truly novel approaches to determine
  • physical characteristics
  • interactions
  • quantities
  • affinities
  • location
  • force generation
  • time scales
  • flexibility and internal motion

Questions

• What do we need to learn
• What types of measurements do we need to make
• What kinds of tools do we require - do they exist or do we develop?

Funding Criteria

• Fill Gaps in current knowledge that cannot be addressed by any single NIH Inst.
• Expand the Network of Nanomed Centers by addressing complementary models, topics, targets, approaches
  • Center for Protein Folding Machinery (PN2EY016525)
    • Principal Investigator: Wah Chiu, Baylor College of Medicine
  • National Center for the Design of Biomimetic Nanoconductors (PN2EY016570)
    • Principal Investigator: Eric Jakobsson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • Engineering Cellular Control: Synthetic Signaling and Motility Systems (PN2EY016546)
    • Principal Investigator: Wendell Lim, University of California, San Francisco
  • Nanomedicine Center for Mechanical Biology (PN2EY016586)
    • Principal Investigator: Michael Sheetz, Columbia University, New York
• Centers to operate as a Network
  • new capabilities to be generated efficiently without redundancy
  • Potential Collab with "Mechanical Biol" (Sheetz) on in situ cell imaging?
  • Potential Collab with "Protein Folding Machinery" (Chiu) on EM imaging?
• Acceptance of a high level of risk
  • will require thinking "out-of-the-box" that usually constrains NIH grant appl
  • significantly higher levels of risk compared to typical NIH studies
• Specific Theme
  • focus on biological system and its relevance to health - not on tech develop
  • Technology developement should be high
    • develop tools that can be generalized
    • connection to clinic is imperative throughout
    • guidance and involvement of clinicians
• Flexible Research Authority
  • Modified Peer Review
  • Encourages improved, extensive consultation with the research community during the planning process;
  • Greater flexibility in evaluation and the peer review process;
  • Expanded award authorities to facilitate collaborations; and

Concept Approval Letter (due March 15)

• Nanomedicine Challenges
  • Articulate the Nanomedicine challenges in your chosen area of investigation in the context of this initiative.

• Goals and Approaches
  • Describe the model system(s) you will investigate.
  • What are the short term goals, and approaches you will use to obtain quantitative measurements in your model system(s).
  • Describe what underlying engineering principles will be revealed?
  • Describe how the tools and results can be generalized to other biological systems.
  • How will completion of the short-term goals position you and others in the community to address a specific medical problem?
  • What are the longer-term goals?
  • What are your goals for providing progress toward medical benefit over ~10 year period? If you are successful, what do you hope to build and how will it be used for diagnostics, treatment or repairing tissue?
• Nanomedicine: Unique and Distinct
  • State how the proposed goals, approaches, and collaborations are distinct and higher risk, from the research that you and members of your team have been pursuing under other support. Nanomedicine is not simply cellular biophysics or protein engineering. Distinguish your approach to Nanomedicine from these and other disciplines. (Example: Traditional protein engineering has been done on well-defined/constrained proteins. It doesn’t account for dynamic states or cellular environments. Research in the NDC will do both of those.)

• • Describe synergies, complementarities, and unique collaborative opportunities with other NDCs in the network.

• Collaborators
  • Identify your key collaborators and areas of expertise for your NDC.

• Set ALLOWTOPICVIEW =

-- DavidStokes - 19 Feb 2006