HEAL Initiative Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Development and Validation of Pain-Related Models and Endpoints to Facilitate Non-Addictive Analgesic Discovery

The purpose of this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) is to encourage the development, validation, and replication of animal models that recapitulate the phenotypic and physiologic characteristics of a defined pain type/indication and/or disease-associated pain condition and endpoints or outcome measures that can be used therein. The goal of this NOSI is to improve the translational application of animal models and/or outcome measures for the development of non-addictive analgesics. Ideally, models or measures proposed for this NOSI would have the potential to provide feasible and meaningful assessments of efficacy following therapeutic intervention that would be applicable in both preclinical and clinical settings.

This NOSI is not specific for any one or group of pain conditions. Projects focused on acute pain, chronic pain, painful neuropathy, musculoskeletal pain, headache disorders, osteoarthritis, diabetic neuropathy, chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, eye pain, sickle-cell pain, post-surgical pain, cancer pain, visceral pain, obstetric pain, gynecologic pain, post stroke pain, myofascial pain, painful disorders of the orofacial region, pain co-occuring with substance use disorders, and other conditions will be considered. In addition to replication and validation of more commonly used translational animal models of pain, the development of animal models of pain for understudied pain conditions, age groups or less developed models is also encouraged.

This notice applies to due dates on or after October 18, 2022 and subsequent receipt dates through June 25, 2025.