The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to solicit applications for Biomarker Characterization Centers (BCCs), one of the three scientific units of the Early Detection Research Network (EDRN). The EDRN is a national infrastructure to discover, develop, and validate biomarkers and imaging methods for early cancer detection and risk assessment. BCCs will (1) discover, develop, characterize and test new biomarkers or refine existing biomarkers, (2) develop, refine and/or standardize biomarker assays, (3) provide resources and support for the validation of biomarkers developed by the EDRN, and (4) participate in collaborative projects with other laboratories and centers.
The other two scientific units of the continuing EDRN program are the Clinical Validation Centers (CVCs), which will conduct clinical research on the validation of biomarkers and will serve as resource centers for the Network by participating in collaborative biomarker validation studies with EDRN BCCs; and the Data Management and Coordinating Center (DMCC), which will support statistical and computational analyses, informatics infrastructure, study design, coordination and management of EDRN-sponsored biomarker validation studies, and the coordination of Network-wide meetings and workshops.