Intramural - Extramural Collaboration for Advanced 3-D Tissue Models for Drug Screening (Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is soliciting applications to develop, validate, and demonstrate the utility of advanced 3-D tissue models for testing the efficacy of various therapeutic modalities. The goal of this initiative is to accelerate the discovery and development of new therapeutics across different diseases. Applicants are required to utilize the 3-D modeling/drug screening expertise and infrastructure available at the NCATS 3-D Bioprinting laboratory. The 3-D tissue models should be as complex as necessary to achieve physiological/pharmacological relevance and as simple as possible to make the models robust, reliable, and amenable to drug screening. Key points to consider include: • The development of advanced 3-D drug screening models adaptable to high throughput assays • The creation of non-animal models that mimic structural, biochemical, and mechanical properties of tissue • The use of 3-D modeling/drug screening expertise and infrastructure available at the NCATS 3-D Bioprinting laboratory • The requirement for applicants to develop 3-D tissue models that are representative of a drug's behavior in a body • The goal of improving predictive accuracy and accelerating the discovery and development of new therapeutics