Omics Phenotypes Related to Down Syndrome for the INCLUDE Project (X01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is welcoming applications for their INvestigation of Co-occurring conditions across the Lifespan to Understand Down syndromE project, also known as the INCLUDE Project. This grant pertains to the development of Omics Phenotypes related to Down Syndrome; however, it is important to note that the grant does not support clinical trials.

The goal of the INCLUDE Project is to facilitate the discovery of molecular mechanisms that explain health conditions related to Down Syndrome. To achieve this, a wealth of integrated genomic and multi-omics data will be generated and will be made accessible to the wider research community as a valuable resource.

Though the INCLUDE Project will not directly fund applicants, those who apply are urged to suggest omics essays of already collected samples from both Down Syndrome patients and control subjects. The project is open to a variety of sequencing techniques from whole genome, both short-read and long-read, exome, epigenome, transcriptome sequencing to proteomic, metabolomic and single-cell RNA sequencing, and ATAC sequencing if appropriately justified.

In particular, the NIH is encouraging applications that will enrich cohorts with racial and ethnic samples that are currently underrepresented or aim to increase the diversity of present collections. All omics data and phenotypic data gathered under this project will be placed in a public, controlled-access INCLUDE Project database for researcher access.