Fast track proposals will be accepted.
Direct-to-Phase II proposals will not be accepted.
Number of anticipated awards: 2-3
Budget (total costs, per award):
Phase I: up to $400,000 for up to 9 months
Phase II: up to $2,000,000 for up to 2 years
PROPOSALS THAT EXCEED THE BUDGET OR PROJECT DURATION LISTED ABOVE MAY NOT BE FUNDED.
Emerging single-cell and in situ technologies are facilitating the characterization of normal, diseased, stromal, and immune cells in human tissues. Coupling these data with imaging modalities that provide information about tissue composition, gross organ structure, and metabolism while incorporating longitudinal clinical data can improve our understanding of the development and evolution of disease. Several recent initiatives have focused on generating ‘atlases’ that integrate multi-scale maps to facilitate our understanding of health and disease. These include the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, the Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP), the Human Cell Atlas (HCA) initiative, and the Human Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN). Additionally, the rapid advancement of single-cell genomic- and imaging-based technologies has expanded the use of these tools in individual research projects supported by the NIH and NCI.
Spatial atlas mapping efforts seek to analyze and integrate multi-scale and multi-modal data sets to generate cohesive multi-dimensional maps of normal and diseased tissues and provide them in a user-friendly environment for the research and clinical communities. Tumor atlases may include single-cell resolution data describing the tumor itself, the tumor microenvironment, and the immune milieu. A major challenge to realizing the full potential of tumor atlases is the lack of tools for the visualization of data across scales and modalities. The purpose of this contract topic is to incentivize small businesses to develop technologies that allow integrative multi-scale data visualization to facilitate building and sharing of atlases.
The goal of this project is to promote integrative visualization of multi-scale data. Potential tools or technologies would include, but are not limited to:
For this project, data scales are defined as:
Activities outside the scope of this Topic:
Work that would not fall under this Topic includes: (1) approaches for visualization at a single scale and (2) approaches that focus on analysis and do not include data visualization as the major component.
The goal of Phase I is to develop proof-of-concept or prototype tools, technologies, or products for visualizing multi-scale biomedical data. Activities and deliverables include:
The goal of Phase II is an optimized commercial tool or technology for visualizing multi-scale biomedical data. Deliverables and activities include:
Receipt date: October 23, 2019, 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
Apply for this topic on the Contract Proposal Submission (eCPS) website.
For full PHS2020-1 Contract Solicitation, CLICK HERE.