Advanced Development and Validation of Emerging Biospecimen Science Technologies for Basic and Clinical Cancer Research (R33 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

This Funding Opportunity Notice invites applications for a grant in Advanced Development and Validation of Emerging Biospecimen Science Technologies for Cancer Research. This grant does not support clinical trials (R33). The purpose is to fund exploratory research projects that aim to develop and validate new emerging technologies to enhance the quality of samples used for both basic and clinical cancer research and care.

The focus is on technologies capable of mitigating issues related to the pre-analytical degradation of targeted analytes witnessed during the collection, handling, processing, and storage of cancer-relevant biospecimens. We're calling for R33 applications that have established major feasibility of the technology or methodology with supportive preliminary data but still require further development and rigorous validation to ensure their adoption by the research community.

The overarching goal is to promote the creation of highly innovative technologies that enhance the quality and usefulness of biological samples for downstream analyses. The funding will support the development of tools, devices, instrumentation, and associated methods to protect sample integrity, establish verification criteria for quality assessment/control, and manage diverse handling conditions.

These advanced technologies are expected to expedite and improve research in cancer biology, early detection, screening, clinical diagnosis, treatment, and epidemiology. They'll also help address issues tied to cancer health disparities by minimizing pre-analytical variations that can compromise biospecimen sample quality.