Common Fund Programs

CURRENT COMMON FUND PROGRAMS
Program New Tools and Methods Databases and Libraries High-Risk High Throughput Analyses Translational Population Science Training Program Resources
4D Nucleome The 4D Nucleome program will develop novel tools and methods to explore the organization of genetic material within the nucleus in space and time, how nuclear organization influences gene expression, and how nuclear organization influences normal development and disease. The 4D Nucleome Data Coordination and Integration Center (4DN-DCIC) will track, store, and display all data generated by the program; assist with integrated analyses; develop community-wide metrics and standards; and provide visualization tools for complex data sets.   Many of the novel tools and technologies developed by the 4D Nucleome program are expected to be high-throughput, including technologies to produce genome-wide maps of nuclear organization and high-throughput, high-resolution imaging appraches to facilitate analysis of nuclear organization.     The Nuclear Organization and Function Interdisciplinary Consortium (NOFIC) will include a multi-disciplinary training component to help foster the next generation of 4D Nucleome scientists.  
Big Data to Knowledge The Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) program supports the development of new methods and computational tools for accessing, searching, analyzing, and integrating biomedical data. The Big Data to Knowledge program is meant to facilitate the broad use of existing data by creating a data discovery index of research datasets that will enable researchers to find, cite, and make use of large datasets.   The Big Data to Knowledge Program seeks to develop efficient and meaningful ways to create connections across data types. This includes data from different sources, platforms, research areas and levels of specialization, as well as data sets with special considerations like extreme sample size. A goal of the Big Data to Knowledge program is to develop new analysis and modeling technologies that integrate many diverse sets of biomedical data including behavioral data, clinical data and electronic health records. The resulting analyses and models may expedite the translation to clinical practice or provide evidence to inform health policies. Improved access to clinical data and electronic health records made possible by the Big Data to Knowledge program could help researchers study the effectiveness of health care strategies in large and diverse populations, conduct large-scale surveillance of disease incidence, identify cohorts of patients for enrollment in clinical trials, while at the same time, protecting patient privacy. The Big Data to Knowledge Program aims to increase the number of computationally and quantitatively skilled biomedical researchers and biomedical trainees by supporting the development of courses and funding mentored training opportunities.
Diversity Program Consortium: Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-Funded Workforce The Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-Funded Workforce program is developing new approaches to unify and strengthen institutions and faculty dedicated to the recruitment and retention of diverse scientists. It is intended to create an integrated consortium of institutions and organizations working together to establish a community of diverse scientists, strengthen ties between mentors and mentees, and build effective collaborative networks.           The Enhancing the Diversity of the NIH-Funded Workforce program will support innovative training activities aiming to increase the recruitment and retention of diverse scientists. These activities will include training opportunities in biomedical research, mentoring, grantsmanship, and career strategies.

Epigenomics

 The Epigenomics program supports the development of new technology for epigenetics research that revolutionizes epigenetic profiling and/or whole epigenome studies and enables in vivo imaging of epigenetic changes in cells, tissues and eventually intact organisms. The program also supports an initiative aimed at identifying novel epigenetic marks and establishing their function in mammalian cells. The Epigenomics program supports a series of epigenome production centers developing reference epigenome maps including information about DNA methylation, histone modifications, and associated non-coding RNAs, as well as functional correlates of these epigenetic marks in a variety of human cells. The comprehensive data sets will enhance the understand basic biological processes as well as disease mechanisms, provide insights into epigenetic and genetic disease susceptibility, and assist in the identification of potential therapeutic targets.   The Epigenomics program is identifying fundamental epigenome-wide marks, such as DNA methylation, histone modifications, and associated non-coding RNAs, or mechanisms in a variety of human cell types that may underlie specific diseases; conditions of development or aging; or response to exposures (physical, chemical, behavioral, and social factors).      
Extracellular RNA Communication The Extracellular RNA Communication program provides support to develop new tools to investigate extracellular RNA biology, and the use of extracellular RNAs as therapeutic molecules or biomarkers. These tools may include in vivo tracking methods, 'omics scale analyses, targeted delivery methods, comparative analyses of extracellular RNAs from healthy and diseased individuals, and computational/analytical tools to query data. The Extracellular RNA Communication program will generate reference profiles of extracellular RNAs from healthy human body fluids, which will serve as reference data to compare extracellular RNAs from patients with a variety of diseases. The program will also generate data standards for the extracellular RNA research community.        
Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program   The Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research program will develop a data resource of well-curated clinical and genetic sequence data that will allow scientists to identify genetic pathways that underlie specific pediatric conditions but that may also be shared between disparate conditions. By integrating data from many conditions, we expect entirely new ways of understanding disease to emerge.   The Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research program will use high throughput whole genome sequencing to populate a data resource with genetic sequence data from childhood cancer and structural birth defects cohorts. The data resource will allow scientists to identify genetic pathways that underlie specific pediatric conditions and potential lead to new ways of understanding disease. The goal of the Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research program is to identify genetic pathways that underlie specific pediatric conditions but that may also be shared between disparate conditions. By integrating data from many conditions, we expect entirely new ways of understanding disease to emerge and to stimulate research toward more effective preventions and therapies.      
Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) The Gene Expression-Tissue (GTEx) project provides support for development of innovative statistical methods to detect the influence of genetic variation on tissue-specific gene expression and regulation using existing tissue-specific gene expression datasets and/or simulated datasets, and available GTEx-generated data. The Gene Expression-Tissue (GTEx) project supports the creation of a database to house existing and GTEx-generated expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) data. The database will allow users to view and download computed eQTL results and provide a controlled access system for de-identified individual-level genotype, expression, and clinical data. An associated tissue repository will also serve as a resource for many additional kinds of analyses.   The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project aims to provide the scientific community with a resource with which to study human gene expression and regulation and its relationship to genetic variation. This project will collect and analyze multiple human tissues from donors who are also densely genotyped, to assess genetic variation within their genomes. Global RNA expression will be analyzed within individual tissues and treated as quantitative traits to help identify variations in gene expression that are highly correlated with genetic variation and can be identified as expression quantitative trait loci, or eQTLs.      
Global Health         Common Fund's Global Health program is supporting new projects through the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) that seek to build research and clinical capacity in countries of Sub-Saharan Africa that are part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Specific projects focus on efforts to enhance education and clinical care in several priority health areas in this region: maternal-child health, cardiovascular disease, and mental health treatment. The Common Fund's Global Health program supports population research and planning activities involving national and international partnerships. NIH is working with the Wellcome Trust, a global charity based in London, to develop population-based genetic studies in Africa of common, non-communicable disorders such as heart disease and cancer, as well as communicable diseases such as malaria through the Human Heredity and Health in Africa, or H3Africa project. The Common Fund's Global Health program provides support for research projects through the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) that seek to develop and strengthen models of medical education and build research and clinical capacity in countries of Sub-Saharan Africa that are part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). MEPI projects provide clinical education and research training opportunities to in-country faculty and students working on non-communicable diseases and other priority health areas, such as maternal and child health and mental health, related to and beyond HIV/AIDS.
Glycoscience The Glycoscience Program is developing accessible and affordable new tools and technologies for studying carbohydrates that will enable researchers in all biomedical fields to dramatically advance our understanding of the roles of these complex molecules in health and disease. These tools will make this class of complex but important molecules more amenable to study among the broader research community. The Data Integration and Analysis tools initiative of the Glycoscience Program supports the development of new approaches that mine and link complementary glycan, protein, and genetic information together, and address development of a common ontology. The Facile Methods and Technologies for Synthesis of Biomedically Relevant Carbohydrates initiative supports new strategies for the synthesis and scalable production of non-natural libraries of glycans, or glyco-conjugate analogues.   The Glycosience Program supports the development of new and innovative high throughput technologies for rapid and affordable synthesis, sequencing of glycans, and for interrogating their functions. More facile methods for performing detailed structural analyses of complex carbohydrates are also targeted for development.      
HCS Research Collaboratory The overall goal of the Common Fund Health Care Systems (HCS) Research Collaboratory program is to strengthen the national capacity to implement cost-effective large-scale research studies that engage health care delivery organizations as research partners. The aim of the program is to provide a framework of implementation methods and best practices that will enable the participation of many health care systems in clinical research, not to support a defined health care research network. Research conducted in partnership with health care systems is essential to strengthen the relevance of research results to health practice. The overall goal of the Common Fund Health Care Systems (HCS) Research Collaboratory program is to strengthen the national capacity to implement cost-effective large-scale research studies that engage health care delivery organizations as research partners. The aim of the program is to provide a framework of implementation methods and best practices that will enable the participation of many health care systems in clinical research, not to support a defined health care research network. Research conducted in partnership with health care systems is essential to strengthen the relevance of research results to health practice.     The overall goal of the Common Fund Health Care Systems (HCS) Research Collaboratory program is to strengthen the national capacity to implement cost-effective large-scale research studies that engage health care delivery organizations as research partners. The aim of the program is to provide a framework of implementation methods and best practices that will enable the participation of many health care systems in clinical research, not to support a defined health care research network. Research conducted in partnership with health care systems is essential to strengthen the relevance of research results to health practice. The overall goal of the Common Fund Health Care Systems (HCS) Research Collaboratory program is to strengthen the national capacity to implement cost-effective large-scale research studies that engage health care delivery organizations as research partners. The aim of the program is to provide a framework of implementation methods and best practices that will enable the participation of many health care systems in clinical research, not to support a defined health care research network. Research conducted in partnership with health care systems is essential to strengthen the relevance of research results to health practice.  
Health Economics The Health Economics program supports research on how specific features of the structure or organization of health care delivery organizations and reimbursement systems influence how health care technologies, including prevention measures, are adopted and combined by health care providers, how they are applied or used for specific patients, and how those features could be modified to enhance efficiency.       The Health Economics Program, launched in the wake of national health care reform, is designed to address the evolving needs of the health care sector for economic research, specifically in the development and evaluation of approaches to restraining growth in health care costs while expanding support for the use of health information technology. The program seeks to foster the collection of data that will be most useful for policy-relevant analysis; examine the economic effects of changes in incentives for consumers, providers and insurers; explore the ways in which structure and organization on the supply side of the medical market affect health care spending and clinical outcomes; and investigate the potential of preventive measures to improve health and mitigate cost growth.    
The NIH Director's Early Independence Award (EIA) program represents a new approach to stimulate outstanding and highly innovative junior investigators who possess the intellect, scientific creativity, drive, and maturity to begin an independent academic position as early in their careers as possible - immediately following completion of their graduate research degrees. The program is intended to spur productive new careers and pioneering research.   The NIH Director's Early Independence Award (EIA) program represents a bold new approach to promote outstanding junior investigators to move into an independent academic position immediately following completion of their graduate research degrees, thereby skipping the traditional post-doctoral training that can result in valuable time lost by scientists in pursuit of independent biomedical research and deter students as they consider possible careers in biomedical research. If successful, the program could revolutionize career development and pathways to independence.       The NIH Director's Early Independence Award (EIA) program is designed to address current roadblocks in traditional career development and training by allowing highly innovative junior investigators to move into an independent academic position as early in their careers as possible -- immediately following completion of their graduate research degrees.  
The NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator award programs are testing new funding mechanisms to support exceptionally creative people and ideas, and new models of NIH peer review of program applications. The research projects are providing new technologies and conceptual frameworks with which to tackle fundamental challenges in biomedical and behavioral research. Several projects supported by the NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator awards involve development of new databases and libraries of information related to human health and disease. The NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator award programs support exceptionally innovative people and potentially high-risk ideas that, if successful, have the potential to transform the scientific concepts, approaches and tools used in biomedical research. Projects address a broad range of biomedical and behavioral sciences. Several projects supported by the NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator awards involve application of high throughput approaches to analysis of genetics, genomics and other molecular indicators of health and disease. Several projects supported by the NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator awards are accelerating the discovery of new biological targets, devices and applications that may be exploited in the development of new therapies and treatments for disease.      
The NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator award programs are testing new funding mechanisms to support exceptionally creative people and ideas, and new models of NIH peer review of program applications. The research projects are providing new technologies and conceptual frameworks with which to tackle fundamental challenges in biomedical and behavioral research. Several projects supported by the NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator awards involve development of new databases and libraries of information related to human health and disease. The NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator award programs support exceptionally innovative people and potentially high-risk ideas that, if successful, have the potential to transform the scientific concepts, approaches and tools used in biomedical research. Projects address a broad range of biomedical and behavioral sciences. Several projects supported by the NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator awards involve application of high throughput approaches to analysis of genetics, genomics and other molecular indicators of health and disease. Several projects supported by the NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator awards are accelerating the discovery of new biological targets, devices and applications that may be exploited in the development of new therapies and treatments for disease.      
The NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator award programs are testing new funding mechanisms to support exceptionally creative people and ideas, and new models of NIH peer review of program applications. The research projects are providing new technologies and conceptual frameworks with which to tackle fundamental challenges in biomedical and behavioral research. Several projects supported by the NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator awards involve development of new databases and libraries of information related to human health and disease. The NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator award programs support exceptionally innovative people and potentially high-risk ideas that, if successful, have the potential to transform the scientific concepts, approaches and tools used in biomedical research. Projects address a broad range of biomedical and behavioral sciences. Several projects supported by the NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator awards involve application of high throughput approaches to analysis of genetics, genomics and other molecular indicators of health and disease. Several projects supported by the NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards, Pioneer, and New Innovator awards are accelerating the discovery of new biological targets, devices and applications that may be exploited in the development of new therapies and treatments for disease.      
The Human BioMolecular Atlas Platform (HuBMAP)          
Illuminating the Druggable Genome The KMC will develop facile query and browsing tools and the Technology Development initiative will develop scalable assays to enable deep annotation of the Druggable Genome. The IDG Knowledge Management Center will create a database that will bring together multiple data sources and information for the research community.   The IDG will adapt and scale assays for rapid and high throughput annotation in the Technology Development initiative.      
Knockout Mouse Phenotyping (KOMP2) The Knockout Mouse Phenotyping (KOMP2) program plans to convert the International Knockout Mouse Consortium's (IKMC's) knockout embryonic stem (ES) cell libraries into mice, perform quality control (QC) on the imported materials and subsequent products, send the mice to the successful grantees for phenotyping, and cryopreserve germplasm of those mice and send aliquots to the KOMP repository. These resources are needed by NIH-funded Mouse Phenotyping Centers to produce functional information for each protein coding gene in the mammalian genome. The Knockout Mouse Phenotyping (KOMP2) program will support a Data Coordination Center and Database (DCCDB) to develop, house, and maintain databases to track the progress of the pipelines for producing the knockout mice from embryonic stem cells, collect all phenotype data generated at the phenotyping centers, coordinate these efforts with the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC), and deliver this information to the members of the KOMP2 research network, NIH staff, and the public via a single integrated web portal of phenotype data.   The Knockout Mouse Phenotyping (KOMP2) program will provide broad, standardized phenotyping of a genome-wide collection of mouse knockouts generated by the International Knockout Mouse Constorium (IKMC) funded by NIH, the European Union, Wellcome Trust, Canada, and the Texas Enterprise Fund.      
Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) The Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) program is developing new molecular and cellular phenotypic assays for determining how different perturbing agents affect different types of cells, and creating new computational tools to enable integrative analyses of data on perturbation-induced molecular and cellular signatures across multiple datasets. The Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) aims to develop a "library" of molecular signatures that describe how different types of cells respond to a variety of perturbing agents. The program will support the integration of existing databases into LINCS.   The Library of Integrated Network-Based Cellular Signatures (LINCS) program will support the high-throughput collection and integrative computational analysis of informative molecular activity and cellular feature signatures generated in response to a variety of perturbing agents, including siRNAs and small bioactive molecules, which are applied to a set of carefully selected cell types. The resulting knowledge will form the basis of a long-lived resource that can be used broadly by the community.      
Metabolomics The Common Fund's Metabolomics program aims to expand and improve the capacity of researchers to conduct comprehensive metabolomics studies by adding and improving instrumentation and methods for metabolic analyses, expanding faculty expertise, developing new training programs to meet the need for expertise, and synthesizing reliable metabolic standards for use by the community. The Common Fund's Metabolomics program supports the synthesis of reliable metabolic standards. Data generated from these standards can be deposited into existing databases to expand the identities of the metabolite repertoire and serve as a resource for the entire metabolomics community.   The Common Fund's Metabolomics program aims to address current limitations in metabolomics technologies, including, but not limited to, increasing the number, quantitative accuracy, specificity, and throughput of molecular identification. The Common Fund's Metabolomics program aims to address both technical limitations to metabolic analysis as well as lack of infrastructure capacity that currently limits the widespread application of metabolomics to clinical and translational studies. Overcoming these barriers will facilitate the adoption of metabolic analyses in clinical/translational research.   The Common Fund's Metabolomics program aims to increase the number of investigators with metabolomics expertise by supporting interdisciplinary training involving a diverse set of training vehicles that match career stage and goals.
Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity in Humans The Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity in Humans program aims to create the complete map of molecular changes in response to physical activity. These data will be accessible to the broad scientific community in formats that investigators can use to develop and test hypotheses about the mechanisms by which physical activity improves health. The Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity in Humans Bioinformatics Center will establish an online data resource that can be accessed for analyses and for future use by the scientific community.   The Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity in Humans Chemical Analysis sites will deploy the most recent technologies to categorize the molecular changes that occur in response to physical activity at the molecular level. Techniques will include whole genome sequencing, epigenetics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics. A goal of the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity in Humans program is to generate a molecular map that will form the basis for hypothesis-driven, investigator-initiated projects focused on illuminating the mechanisms whereby physical activity underlays human health. The Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity in Humans will study a cohort of around 3000 adults and children, including both sexes and a wide range of ages, race/ethnicities and other relevant characteristics in order to arrive at data that is widely applicable.    
Protein Capture Reagents The Protein Capture Reagents program is developing new resources and tools to understand the critical role the multitude of cellular proteins play in normal development and health as well as in disease. These resources will support a wide-range of research and clinical applications that will enable the isolation and tracking of proteins of interest and permit their use as diagnostic biomarkers of disease onset and progression. The Common Fund's Protein Capture program seeks to establish a "protein capture" resource of reagents for the biomedical community for use in a broad range of research and clinical applications such as protein isolation, high-throughput assays, diagnostics, and biomarker development.          
Regenerative Medicine Program (RMP) The Regenerative Medicine Program (RMP), within the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP), will serve as a stem cell resource for the scientific community, providing stem cells, as well as the supporting protocols and standard operating procedures used to derive, culture, and differentiate them in to different cell types. The Regenerative Medicine Program (RMP), within the NIH Intramural Research Program (IRP), will establish a stem cell resource for the scientific community, providing stem cells, as well as the supporting protocols and standard operating procedures used to derive, culture, and differentiate them in to different cell types.     Regenerative Medicine Program (RMP) will serve as a stem cell resource for NIH IRP laboratories funded on a competitive basis in FY 2010 to carry out pilot projects in translational applications of stem cells in support of the RMP mission.    
Science of Behavior Change The Science of Behavior Change program represents a novel approach to study of human behavior that integrates basic and translational science and cuts across disciplines of cognitive and affective neuroscience, neuroeconomics, behavioral genetics, and behavioral economics. The program seeks to establish the groundwork for a unified science of behavior change that capitalizes on both the emerging basic science and the progress already made in the design of behavioral interventions in specific disease areas.       The Science of Behavior Change program aims to improve our understanding of human behavior change across a broad range of health-related behaviors, including human motivation and maintenance of behavior change across multiple diseases and conditions. This new knowledge will be used to develop more effective and economical behavioral interventions. Projects within the Science of Behavior Change program seek to improve the understanding of basic mechanisms of behavior change across a range of health-related behaviors of relevance to millions of Americans, including exercise and weight gain, alcohol and tobacco use, and addiction. The projects bridge work done in laboratories and in the field and stimulate investigations at the social, economic, behavioral, psychological, neurobiological and/or genetic level.  
Somatic Cell Genome Editing The focus of the Somatic Cell Genome Editing is to develop quality tools to perform effective and safe genome editing in human patients, and then to make the research tools widely available to the research community.       The Somatic Cell Genome Editing program aims to improve genome editing technologies to accelerate the translation of this technology into clinical applications and maximize the potential to treat as many diseases as possible.      
Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) SPARC will assemble data from initiatives into a coordinated data resource, develop user-friendly computational tools, and incorporate new computer modeling methods. The program will also develop next-generation tools for visceral nerves.   SPARC is high-risk, goal-driven endeavor to develop proof of concept for an entirely new class of neural control devices that have the potential to precisely treat a wide variety of diseases and conditions.   SPARC plans to partner with industry and FDA to explore utility of existing, approved devices to address new, small-market indications. Proof of concept for devices also have the potential for novel therapies in the future.      
Strengthening the Biomedical Research Workforce The Strengthening the Biomedical Research Workforce program aims to develop innovative new methods to complement traditional research training in biomedical sciences. These approaches will be rigorously analyzed to assess impact, and proven methods will be widely disseminated throughout the community.           The Strengthening the Biomedical Research Workforce program aims to expand the training opportunities for early career scientists to prepare them for entry into the dynamic biomedical workforce landscape. This training may occur in a variety of environments: industry, biotechnology, entrepreneurial enterprises, tech transfer, science policy, regulatory agencies, and others.
Transformative High Resolution Cryo-Electron Microscopy
 
 
 
 
 
  
Undiagnosed Diseases Network The Undiagnosed Diseases Network, an extension of the Undiagnosed Diseases Program, aims to develop more effective and efficient diagnostic methods.     The Undiagnosed Disease Network analyzes DNA from the majority of participants, from either whole-exome or whole-genome sequence. Ongoing efforts to streamline the ability to detect rare-genomic variants will be a major emphasis of this program. Findings made in the clinic reveal important gene variants and basic research illuminates their functions. Results from basic research have the potential to contribute to new diagnostic and prognostic tools, as well as better treatments.   The Undiagnosed Diseases Program will provide unique training to clinicians to enable them to apply contemporary genomic approaches to aid in disease diagnosis.
FORMER COMMON FUND PROGRAMS
Program New Tools and Methods Databases and Libraries High-Risk High Throughput Analyses Translational Population Science Training Program Resources
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology The National Centers for Biomedical Computing (NCBCs), of the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology program, are developing novel, cutting-edge software and data management tools to help researchers analyze and mine the vast wealth of biomedical data related to health and disease.              
Bridging Interventional Development
Gaps (BrIDGs) 		Bridging Interventional Development
Gaps (BrIDGs) fromally known as (RAID) program was established to make publically available, on a competitive basis, certain critical resources needed for the development of new therapeutic agents. The services provided depend upon the stage of the project and the strength of the preliminary data, but may include: production, bulk supply, good manufacturing practice (GMP) manufacturing, formulation, development of an assay suitable for pharmacokinetic testing, and animal toxicology. 		      Bridging Interventional Development
Gaps (BrIDGs) fromally known as (RAID) pilot program provides public resources to bridge the gap and reduce some of the barriers between laboratory discovery and clinical testing of promising high-risk ideas or therapies for uncommon disorders. 		     
Building Blocks, Biological Pathways and Networks The Common Fund's Building Blocks, Biological Pathways, and Networks (BBN) Program is designed to address technology roadblocks to studying the dynamic and complex activities and interactions of proteins and metabolites that make up biological pathways and networks in cells. New technologies and resources developed through this program are expected to catalyze hundreds of studies of normal and disease-related cellular processes. The Standards for Proteomics and Assessment of Critical Reagents for Proteomics initiative of the BBN program supported the development of the "Peptidome" database, hosted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), as a public repository that archives and freely distributes tandem mass spectrometry peptide and protein identification data generated by the scientific community. Several layers of data are captured to promote understanding of the experiment and analysis of the underlying data.   The Common Fund's Building Blocks, Biological Pathways, and Networks (BBN) Program is developing new technologies and resources for studying, with a high degree of quantitative, spatial, and temporal resolution, how proteins and metabolites function in dynamic biological pathways and systems in cells.     The National Technology Centers for Networks and Pathways (TCNPs) initiative of the BBN program supports independent research centers that cooperate in a networked national effort to develop new analytical technologies, methods, and reagents to accelerate the study of complex biochemical pathways of protein interactions. The centers ensure broad access to the technologies, methods, and reagents they develop, and provide interdisciplinary academic and peer training for biomedical researchers.  
Clinical Research Policy Analysis and Coordination (CRPac) The Clinical Research Policy Analysis and Coordination (CRpac) program, created under the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, was intended to help streamline the way clinical researchers satisfy the multiple requirements of diverse regulatory and policy agencies for reporting adverse events, human subjects protections, privacy and conflict-of-interest policies, and standards for electronic data submission. Harmonizing policies and reporting requirements will help minimize unnecessary burdens that slow research, while at the same time enhancing patient protections.       The primary objective of the Clinical Research Policy Analysis and Coordination (CRpac) program was to develop and implement coordinated policies and practices for conducting clinical research across the NIH and other federal agencies      
Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Consortium links together a network of clinical and translational research centers that provide research and information systems and facilities, enhanced community engagement, and training for a new generation of clinical and translational scientists.       The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Consortium is designed to catalyze the development of a new discipline of clinical and translational science that breaks down barriers between clinical and basic research, and overcomes some of the complexities of conducting clinical research, making it easier to translate new knowledge to the clinic and back again to the bench.   The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Consortium links together a network of clinical and translational research centers that provide research and information systems and facilities, enhanced community engagement in clinical research, and training for a new generation of clinical and translational scientists.  
Gulf Oil Spill           The Gulf Long-Term Follow-up (GuLF) study is a longitudinal cohort study, led by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, to investigate the short- and long-term health consequences among workers and community volunteers engaged in clean-up activities surrounding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.    
Human Microbiome Project (HMP) The Human Microbiome Program is developing new technologies to culture or otherwise isolate for analysis currently unculturable organisms that will enable researchers to generate whole genome sequences for more of the human microbiome. New analytical tools are also being developed for distilling useful information from vast amounts of sequence data, functional genomic data and subject metadata included in data sets produced by metagenomic sequencing and related components. The HMP is making all the microbes it is sequencing widely available to the scientific community through public repositories. The Human Microbiome Program (HMP) is supporting a Data and Analysis Coordinating Center (DACC) as a resource of information about the program, along with its results and conclusions. The DACC will track, store and distribute raw data, metadata and processed data; coordinate data analyses; develop data retrieval tools for the research community; coordinate development of metadata standards; and establish a portal to display activities of international projects. It will provide links to a central repository that store materials and reagents generated under the HMP, including cultured organisms, amplified DNA from uncultured organisms, and metagenomic DNA samples, will be needed to make resources widely available to the scientific community at a reasonable cost.   The Human Microbiome Program is developing a reference set of microbial genome sequences found at several different sites on the human body, including nasal passages, oral cavities, skin, gastrointestinal tract, and urogenital tract. The data will be used to characterize the complexity of microbial communities across body sites, and to determine whether there is a core microbiome at each site. A second initiative includes a set of demonstration projects to determine the relationship between human health and changes in the human microbiome.      
Interdisciplinary Research (IR) The Interdisciplinary Research (IR) consortia are testing a new approach to tackle complex health problems, and a new mode of program administration within the NIH. Consortia are formed by self-assembled teams of investigators involved in integrated research projects, core services, training programs, and coordinated administrative structures. Institutions where these consortia are housed provide administrative support for program, ensuring that team members are adequately recognized and that boundaries between departments or schools within the university will not interfere with consortia goals. Program administration within the NIH involves a team of program staff, each of whom oversees a component of a consortium.           Training opportunities within the Interdisciplinary Research program provide interdisciplinary training to investigators at all career stages. The Interdisciplinary Health Research Training program enables institutions to develop postdoctoral training programs that provide formal coursework and research training in a new interdisciplinary field to individuals holding advanced degrees in a different discipline. These training programs typically integrate the behavioral and/or social sciences with more traditional biomedical sciences research. Another program, entitled Training for a New Interdisciplinary Workforce, supports scientists at the undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral levels.  
Molecular Libraries and Imaging The Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network (MLPCN) of the Molecular Libraries and Imaging program is a nationwide consortium of small molecule screening centers that are producing innovative chemical tools for use in biological research. These chemical tools, or probes, can be used to explore biological function of target proteins and as launching points for lead optimization discovery. A list of probes can be found at: http://mli.nih.gov/mli/.
The program is also enhancing the discovery and availability of small molecules for imaging of molecules or molecular events in biological systems that span the scale from single cells to whole organisms. The Imaging Probe Development Center (IPDC) offers the production of known imaging probes for the research community in cases where there is no viable commercial supplier, and generates novel imaging probes for biomedical research and clinical applications.		 The Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network (MLPCN) has established a collection of thousands of chemically diverse small molecules, some of which have known biological activities and others of which have the potential to modulate novel biological functions. All of the screening results from the MLPCN are placed into a public database called PubChem, a comprehensive database of chemical structures and their biological activities developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information at NIH. PubChem includes information about chemical compounds that is made available to all researchers, in both public and private sectors, for their use in studying biology and disease. PubChem houses both compound information from the scientific literature as well as screening and probe data from the MLPCN. Another database, the Molecular Imaging and Contrast Agent Database (MICAD) is a source of information regarding molecular imaging and contrast agents that have in vivo data (animal or human) published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.   The Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network (MLPCN) is a nationwide consortium of small molecule screening centers that perform high throughput screening (HTS) on assays provided by the research community, against a large library of small molecules maintained in a central molecule repository. The network also performs optimization chemistry required to produce useful in vitro chemical probes (research tools for the targets or phenotypes studied in the assays) from the "hits" identified in the initial screening. The Molecular Libraries and Imaging program offers public sector biomedical researchers access to the large-scale screening capacity necessary to identify small molecules that can be optimized as chemical probes to study the functions of genes, cells, and biochemical pathways in health and disease, and to facilitate the development of new drugs by providing early stage chemical compounds to researchers in the public and private sectors to validate new drug targets, which could then move into the drug-development pipeline.      
Nanomedicine The goal of the Nanomedicine program is to determine how cellular machines operate at the nanoscale level and then use these design principles to develop and engineer new technologies and devices for repairing tissue or preventing and curing disease.   The Nanomedicine program, supported through the NIH Common Fund, represents an exceptionally high-risk program with the potential for exceptionally high payoff. The program is intended to determine how nanoscale cellular machines operate and then use that knowledge to design principles to develop and engineer new technologies and devices for repairing tissues or preventing or curing disease.   The Nanomedicine program aims to determine how cellular machines operate at the nanoscale level and then use these design principles to develop and engineer new technologies and devices for repairing tissue or preventing and curing disease.      
National Electronics Clinical Trials and Research (NECTAR) The National Electronics Clinical Trials and Research (NECTAR) program was designed to promote and expand clinical research networks that conduct high-quality clinical studies to address multiple research questions. An inventory of existing clinical research networks was used to define characteristics that promoted or inhibited successful network interactivity, productivity, and expansion, and to identify “best practices" to further enhance the efficiency of clinical research networks. The National Electronics Clinical Trials and Research (NECTAR) program was envisioned to provide the informatics infrastructure needed to make research networks interconnected and inter-operable to accelerate the conduct of clinical resaerch.     The National Electronics Clinical Trials and Research (NECTAR) program was created to provide an infrastructure to facilitate the translation of research discoveries from the laboratory to the clinic and a robust force of clinical investigators to shorten the time to test new therapeutic and preventive strategies in larger numbers of patients.      
NIH Medical Research Scholars Program         NIH Medical Research Scholars Program fromally known as The Clinical Research and Training Program is a year-long residential program designed to attract the most creative, research-oriented medical and dental students, called fellows, to the intramural campus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland to become engaged in a mentored clinical or translational research project in an area that matches their personal research interests and goals.   NIH Medical Research Scholars Program fromally known as The Clinical Research and Training Program is a year-long residential program that provides a training experience for the next generation of clinician-scientists to learn about translational research, from the bench to the bedside, and back to the bench.  
PROMIS: Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) program is creating new paradigms for how clinical research information is collected, used, and reported. PROMIS addresses a need in the clinical research community for a rigorously tested patient reported outcome (PRO) measurement tool that utilizes recent advances in information technology, psychometrics, and qualitative, cognitive, and health survey research to measure PROs such as pain, fatigue, physical functioning, emotional distress, and social role participation that have a major impact on quality-of-life across a variety of chronic diseases. The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) program is developing a rigorously designed reporting system that quantifies clinically important patient-related outcomes (PROs) such as pain, fatigue, physical functioning, emotional distress, and social role participation. PROMIS has formed a network of researchers that developed questions or “items” to analyze these five outcomes or “domains.” PROMIS is creating a psychometrically-robust computer adaptive testing (CAT) system, based on item response theory (IRT), to administer these items. In addition, it is developing a web-based system to give clinical researchers access to the item banks and the CAT system.     The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) is a rigorously designed reporting system that quantifies clinically important patient-related outcomes (PROs) such as pain, fatigue, physical functioning, emotional distress, and social role participation. The increased efficiency, flexibility, and sensitivity of PROMIS demonstrates potential to become a widely accepted, standardized PRO measurement tool that will allow greater comparability of clinical studies, with reduced burden on patients.      
Regulatory Science The NIH, together with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are supporting an initiative in Regulatory Science to generate new knowledge and tools for assessing experimental therapies, preventives, and diagnostics. The Regulatory Science program fosters the development, evaluation and availability of new or improved tools, methods, standards, and applied science that support a better understanding and improved evaluation of product safety, quality, effectiveness, and manufacturing throughput the product life cycle. Advances in this area depend on the incorporation of cutting-edge science and evidence-based knowledge into regulatory decision making.       The Regulatory Science program is intended to improve the assessment of experimental therapies, preventives, and clinical diagnostics. Additional support for regulatory science will facilitate the translation of biomedical research discoveries to improve prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of human health problems.      
Single Cell Analysis The Common Fund's Single Cell Analysis program is supporting the development of innovative tools and approaches in single cell analysis, including new probes, in situ non-destructive imaging techniques, and new models and algorithms to analyze the multi-dimensional, dynamic datasets being generated. Additionally, this program will use prize awards or other targeted mechanisms to encourage research in specific opportunities and gaps in single cell analysis.     The Common Fund's Single Cell Analysis program aims to develop new high throughput technologies for single cell analysis, including methods for analyzing the impact of environmental perturbations, enhancing and improving "-omics" approaches with single cell resolution, and new models and algorithms to analyze the multi-dimensional, dynamic databases being generated. The Common Fund's Single Cell Analysis program is supporting promising approaches and technologies which would enhance clinical understanding if translated for analysis of individual cells in situ and in the clinic, particularly in pathology and treatment screening.    
Structural Biology The Structural Biology program focuses on development of rapid, efficient, and dependable methods to produce protein samples that scientists can use to determine the three-dimensional structure, or shape, of a protein. New methods are needed to isolate large amounts of membrane proteins needed for protein structure determination. The new effort catalyzes what is currently a hit-or-miss process into an organized, coordinated, systematic and streamlined routine, creating a "picture" gallery of the molecular shapes of proteins in the body to help researchers clarify the role of protein shape in health and disease.       The Structural Biology program addresses a critical roadblock in the study of membrane proteins, an important and complex class of proteins for health, and major drug targets for the development of disease treatments. The program supports new approaches to enhance the production of purified samples of these proteins in sufficient quantities for structural determination that is needed to advance our understanding of how protein machines work normally, and how we design therapies to correct them when they don't.      

This page last reviewed on March 12, 2018