This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) solicits grant applications proposing exploratory research projects focused on the early-stage development of highly innovative technologies that improve the quality of the samples used for cancer research or clinical care. This includes new capabilities to address issues related to pre-analytical degradation of targeted analytes during the collection, processing, handling, and/or storage of cancer-relevant biospecimens. The overall goal is to support the development of highly innovative technologies capable of maximizing or otherwise interrogating the quality and utility of biological samples used for downstream analyses. This FOA will support the development of tools, devices, instrumentation, and associated methods to preserve or protect sample integrity, or establish verification criteria for quality assessment/quality control and handling under diverse conditions. These technologies are expected to accelerate and/or enhance research in cancer biology, early detection, and screening, clinical diagnosis, treatment, epidemiology, or address issues associated with cancer health disparities, by reducing pre-analytical variations that affect biospecimen sample quality. Projects proposing application of existing technologies where the novelty resides in the biological or clinical target/question being pursued are not responsive to this solicitation and will not be reviewed.
This funding opportunity is part of a broader NCI-sponsored Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies (IMAT) Program.