Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) intends to create multidisciplinary research groups or partnerships for the discovery of pharmacological agents to treat fusion oncoprotein-driven childhood cancers. This NOFO will use the UM1 mechanism to fund Next Generation Chemistry (NGC) Centers with interdisciplinary teams focusing on innovative medicinal chemistry, chemical biology and chemoproteomic approaches to target fusion oncoprotein-driven cancers. The goal of this program is to accelerate innovative drug discovery focused on developing small molecules to effectively disrupt fusion oncoproteins through mechanisms including, but not limited to, inhibiting activities of fusion oncoproteins, blocking critical fusion oncoprotein interactions, modulating coding and/or noncoding RNAs required for fusion protein oncogenesis, and selectively degrading fusion proteins and/or proteins representing critical fusion oncoprotein dependencies. The NCI encourages applications to advance the discovery, preclinical development, and proof of concept testing of new, rationally designed candidate agents to treat fusion-derived childhood cancers. Funding priority will be given to applications that focus on fusion oncoproteins found in tumors that have high risk of treatment failure and for which there has been little progress in identifying targeted therapeutic agents. Applications focused on pediatric solid tumors and brain tumors are particularly encouraged. Small molecules are defined here as chemically synthesized drug-like compounds with molecular weights <2000 Da that can cross cell membranes to modulate fusion-oncoprotein functions.
Through the companion NOFO, RFA-CA-23-036, the NCI solicits U01 applications for the TFCC Network, which will be independent research projects intended to advance our understanding of the mechanisms of action of fusion oncoproteins in pediatric cancers with the goal of identifying novel drug targets and critical dependencies.
Deadlines:
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Letter of Intent Due Date(s): October 15, 2023
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Application Due Date: November 15, 2023
RFA-CA-23-037 Expiration Date November 16, 2023
Application budgets may not exceed $1.5 million in direct costs (excluding sub-award F&A costs) per year and must reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.
The scope of the proposed project should determine the project period. The maximum project period is 5 years.