The US government’s Departments of Education and Health are providing a funding opportunity specific to stem cells and cancer under grant PA-08-165. This particular grant has an award cap of $200,000, and for eligible parties, applications will be accepted through May 7, 2011. Eligible applicants for this grant includes State governments, public and State-controlled institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations (with and without 501(c)(3) IRS status), private institutions of higher education, small businesses, and for-profit organizations other than small businesses.
The primary focus of this government grant is to provide funding issues by the National Institute of Aging along with the National Cancer Institute for the encouragement of research in all areas of tumor stem cell biology. This would include regulation for embryonic and adult stem cell behavior, both biochemical and molecular, specific to the formation of tumors. Since tumor stem cells have the capability of renewing on their own and dividing, such research is essential to understanding ways in which stem cells can combat cancer.
Interestingly, tumor stem cells have control over the transplant and metastatic properties associated with tumors. Therefore, these government organizations want to provide grant funding as a means of boosting efforts to isolate and characterize these tumor stem cells from the many other known tumor types. To understand the progression of malignant disease such as cancer, studies of this type are imperative. Without grant funding such as this, research needed in the fight against cancer would be impossible or dramatically limited.
Another focus of this particular grant is to use research as a way of understanding biochemical and genetic regulatory mechanisms responsible for the renewal of stem cell tumors, as well as ways to control asymmetric cell division, self-renewal phenotype, and microenvironment of stem cells. In addition to identifying reasons for the progression of malignant diseases, the hope is that this educational and health grant will inspire researchers and scientists to develop new and innovative strategies specific to preventing and treating tumor stem cells.
Educational and medical experts strongly believe that research because of this grant will help improve cancer therapy, especially therapy used for long-term treatment. Ultimately, this would give people living with malignant stem cell tumors a better chance of beating the disease, thereby living a long and healthy life. Cancer continues to be a serious problem for people of all ages so finding more effective therapies is critical.
Recent testing and studies show that stem cells play a vital role in new treatments for people with cancer, starting from the development of embryos to the repair and maintenance of tissues found in adults. Therefore, an educational and health grant of this type could prove to be one of the most valuable being offered through the Department of Education through the United States government.
Considering that a new type of stem cell has been isolated and characterized from liquid and solid tumors, people spearheading this grant are optimistic. As the National Cancer Institute states, the long-term goal is for research to stimulate possibilities for all aspects of stem cell biology, again on the biochemical and molecular levels specific to behavior but also regulation.
This stem cell and cancer grant will not go beyond two years, with costs being limited to $275,000 over that period. Eligible applications include non-profit and for-profit organizations, public and/or private institutions to include colleges, hospitals, laboratories, hospitals, local government units, local Tribal government units, State government units, and State Tribal government units. For eligible institutions for this particular grant, this would include domestic institutions, foreign institutions, the Federal government, and community or faith-based organizations.
Pertaining to eligible Project Directors / Principal Investigators, this would include people from the institutions deemed eligible to apply for the grant, but those with the necessary skills, resources, and knowledge for the proposed research to be conducted. Of course, anyone within racial and ethnic groups, along with people with disabilities is encouraged to apply.
In addition, eligible applicants are allowed to submit more than one application for this educational and health grant but only if each of the applications have a distinct focus scientifically. Information about the application and the electronic method of submission can be researched at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/index.htm and http://era.nih.gov/electronicreceipt.
The application package for the SF424 (R&R) Application Package and SF424 (R&R) SBIR/STTR Application Guide can be found and downloaded by visiting http://www.grants.gov/apply. To complete this process, applicants would be required to complete a one-time registration. Additionally, the organization applying for the grant would be required to obtain a Data Universal Number System or DUNS number, as well as register with the Central Contractor Registration, which are parts of the process for grant application. For questions or additional information, applicants can call customer service at 800-518-4726 Monday through Friday 7:00 am to 9:00 pm Eastern Standard Time or send inquiries via email to support@grants.gov.
