[tt] Neural Interfaces News - March 2009
Hughes, James J.
<James.Hughes at trincoll.edu> on
Wed Mar 18 17:02:13 CET 2009
Neural Interfaces News
1. Neural Interfaces Conference 2010: Save the date: June 21-23, 2010 at the Long Beach Convention Center in CA. Agenda and logistical information to follow.
2. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009: will be supporting challenge grants where some of the topics have relevance for the neural interfaces research community. Application Due Date: April 27, 2009. A couple points…first, it is anticipated that the response to this call for applications will be large such that only a small percentage of applicants will e! arn awards. Second, while policies may vary from Institute to Ins! titute, NINDS does not encourage new investigators to apply for Challenge Grants, which will be awarded for 2 years only and are non-renewable. New investigators who receive these awards will lose their new PI status when competing for future NINDS R01 funding.
For the RFA: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-OD-09-003.html.
Below are several topics that are relevant to the neural interfaces research community:
● 02-OD(OSP)-101 Unique Ethical Issues Posed by Emerging Technologies. Advances in biotechnology and biomedical science raise novel ethical, legal, and social issues. Research in this area is needed to understand the unique ethical concerns related to emerging technologies (e.g. biotechnology, tissue engineering, nanomedicine, and synthetic biology). These include issues such as dual use research, privacy, safety, intellectual property, commercialization and conflict of interest, among others. Research is also needed to assess how these novel issues are addressed under current oversight and regulatory structures and identify where there may be gaps and/or need for revised or new oversight approaches. Contact: Abiga! il Rives, 301-594-1976, rivesa at od.nih.gov; NIBIB Contact: Dr. Belinda Seto, 301-451-6768, setob at mail.nih.gov; NICHD Contact: Dr. James Hanson, 301-496-8535, hansonj at mail.nih.gov; NIMH Contact: Dr. Jean Noronha, 301-443-3367, jnoronha at mail.nih.gov; NINDS Contact: Dr. Joseph Pancrazio, 301-496-1447, jp439m at nih.gov
● 06-AG-101 Neuroscience Blueprint. Development of non-invasive imaging approaches or technologies that directly assess neural activity. This could include research on imaging neuronal electrical currents, neurotransmitter changes and/or neuronal/glial cell responses to brain circuit activation. This scientific area could be advanced by improvements/refinements in existing imaging technology or use of emerging technology that could be developed in two years. The outcome of this challenge could have high impact by connecting the system-level, large population view afforded by fMRI with the cellular processes and responses that contribute to the BOLD-fMRI signal. Two-year challenge projects could stimulate the development of human brain imagi! ng techniques that link cell activity underlying neural communication to the structure and function of brain circuits, and could complement other brain connectivity imaging modalities. Contact: Dr. Bradley Wise, 301-496-9350, wiseb at nia.nih.gov; NIAAA Contact: Dr. Antonio Noronha, 301-443-7722, anoronha at mail.nih.gov; NIBIB Contact: Dr. Yantian Zhang, 301-402-1373, yzhang at mail.nih.gov; NIMH Contact: Dr. Michael F. Huerta, 301-443-1815, Mhuert1 at mail.nih.gov; NINDS Contact: Dr. Randy Stewart, 301-496-1917, rs416y at nih.gov
● 06-EB-109 Model-Driven Biomedical Technology Development. Progress in the development of many biomedical technologies (e.g. neuroengineering technologies, drug and gene delivery systems, tissue engineering) could be greatly accelerated with the development of in silico modeling and simulation methods to drive hypothesis formation, experimental design, data collection, data analysis and synthesis, and re-formulation of the original hypothesis. In a systematic and robust manner, models should identify the gaps in knowledge and the limitations of the engineering design. Proposals that encourage the integration and translation of! knowledge from in vitro to in vivo systems are being sought. Contact: Dr. Grace Peng, 301-451-4778, penggr at mail.nih.gov
● 06-DC-101 Develop Improved Hearing Devices. Approximately 36 million American adults report some degree of hearing loss and would benefit from hearing aid use. However, only approximately 20% of potential hearing aid candidates actually use these devices, owing to concerns about stigma, cosmesis, sound quality, and affordability. The Challenge is to develop improved hearing aids, both worn and implantable, for individuals with hearing loss. Contacts: Dr. Dan Sklare, 301-496-1804, sklared at nidcd.nih.gov; Dr. Gordon Hug! hes, 301-496-5061, hughesg at nidcd.nih.gov.
● 06-DC-102* Develop and Validate Methods for Delivery of Drugs and Molecules to the Inner Ear. In order to capitalize on the new knowledge of the molecular basis for hearing impairment, better methods to deliver drugs and molecules to the inner ear need to be developed and validated. The Challenge is to identify methods of delivery that are robust, long lasting, and minimally toxic to the sensitive structures in the inner ear. Contacts: Dr. Nancy Freeman, 301-402-3458, freemann at nidcd.nih.gov; Dr. Amy Donahue, 301-402-3458, donahuea at nidcd.nih.gov
● 06-HD-101 Improved Interfaces for Prostheses to Improve Rehabilitation Outcomes. Mechanical design and control algorithms for prosthetic limbs have seen remarkable advances recently. Still lacking, however, are robust interfaces for these limbs to both the brain and the skeleton. The foci of this challenge will be to improve functional rehabilitation outcomes by 1) developing or refining control interfaces that can utilize signals from cerebral cortex to drive the latest generation of arm prostheses; 2) developing or refining methods for anchoring prosthetic arms directly into residual bone without risk of infection; and 3) incorporating these technologies into standard rehabilitation practices to improve patient quality of life. These improvements in prosthetic l! imbs could potentially provide enhanced functionality for recipients while reducing the time and cost of rehabilitation efforts. Contact: Michael Weinrich, M.D., Director, National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research, NICHD, (301) 402-0832, weinricm at mail.nih.gov
● 06-NS-104 Developing and validating assistive neuro-technologies. The burden of illness of neurological disorders could be reduced by enabling technologies that reduce functional disability in patients with severe motor or sensory loss. For example, these would include technologies that improve ambulation, upper extremity dexterity, swallowing, or neural control of prostheses. Contact: Dr. Naomi Kleitman, 301-496-1447, nk85q at nih.gov or Dr. Joseph Pancrazio, 301-496-1447, jp439m at nih.gov
● 06-NS-105 Importing important technologies into neuroscience. The challenge is to capitalize on existing knowledge and technologies from other scientific disciplines (e.g. applied physics, nanotechnology, cancer biology, and immunology) to catalyze progress in basic and clinical neuroscience (e.g. cell signaling or cell cycle control mechanisms in neurodegeneration, inflammation in neurological disease, epigenetics in neural development, etc.). Proposals will also be considered that seek to validate, in neurological systems, technologies originally developed for use in other biological systems. Contact: Dr. Joseph Pancrazio, 301-496-1447, jp439m at nih.gov
● 06-NS-106 Validating new methods to study brain connectivity. More complete understanding of the structure and function of human brain networks will be critical for answering many longstanding questions in neuroscience research. Toward this end, applications are invited for research efforts that will contribute to or facilitate coordinated approaches to map mammalian brain connectivity, including research to develop experimental, analytical or computational tools and methods. Contact: Dr. Edmund Talley, 301-496-1917, talleye at ninds.nih.gov
● 06-NS-107 Sensors to monitor neurologic function. Clinical neuroscience research is often based on a small number of repeated assessments of neurological function, deterioration of which is associated with disease progression and functional disability. New sensor technologies that directly monitor and integrate patient function in real life, e.g. daily ambulation distance and speed, sway and falls, tremor, chorea, dysarthria, speech quality and output, sleep and drowsiness, absence seizures, would offer a completely new method of evaluating disease burden, response to therapeutic intervention, and adverse events. Contact: Dr. Debra Babcock and Dr. James Gnadt, 301-496-9964, dbabcock at ninds.nih.gov <mailto:dbabcock@!%0d%0a%20ninds.nih.gov> and gnadtjw at mail.nih.gov
● 13-NS-101 Developing novel biomaterials to interfaces with neural activity. The burden of neurological illness could be advanced by development of smart biomaterials that enable interfacing with the nervous system to restore function and decrease disability. These might include biomaterials that allow more effective neural-computer interfaces, scaffolds to improve repair of injured nerve or spinal cord as well as neurotransmission across damage nerve or cord. Contact: Dr. Joseph Pancrazio, 301-496-1447, jp439m at nih.gov
For the complete list of topics: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/challenge_award/Omnibus.pdf. For a lists of topics from the main Institutes that support neurotechnology - here are the corresponding links:
● NINDS: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/recovery/challenge-grants.htm
● NIBIB: http://www.nibib.nih.gov/ChallengeGrants
● NICHD: http://www.nichd.nih.gov/recovery/challenge_grants/
● NIDCD: http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/funding/challenge.htm
● NIMH: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/recovery/recovery-act-nih-challenge-grants-nimh-areas.shtml
● NEI: http://www.nei.nih.gov/recovery/challengegrants.asp
3. ARRA Supplements: Three types of supplements are becoming available: 1) Competitive revision (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-09-058.html); 2) Administrative (http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-09-056.html); and 3) Summer student/science educators (! http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-09-060.html <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/N!%0d%0a%20OT-OD-09-060.html> ). Competitive supplements provide support for a significant expansion of the scope or research protocol of approved and funded project. Administrative supplements allow for within scope work of existing projects. If you have questions, please read these links for eligibility and process first before you contact the NIH. Please note that some Institutes are in the process of specifying specific policies for supplements; this information will be posted at the following link: http://grants.nih.gov/recovery/ic_supp.html.
4. BMES 2009 Annual Meeting: To be held October 7-10 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, PA. The 2009 Technical Program Committee is requesting abstracts with a closing submission deadline of May 1, 2009. Visit www.bmes.org for more information.
5. Recent changes to Identifying New and Early Stage Investigators: to address both the duration of training and to protect the flux of new investigators, the NIH announced a new policy in fiscal year 2009 involving the identification of Early Stage Investigators (ESIs). ESIs are New Investigators who are within 10 years of completing their terminal research degree or within 10 years of completing their medical residency at the time they apply for R01 grants. Applications from ESIs will be given special consideration during peer review and at the time of funding. Peer reviewers will be instructed to focus more on the proposed approach than on the track record, and to expect ! less preliminary data than would be provided by an established investigator. For more information: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/new_investigators/index.htm
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