DoD Breast Cancer Research Program Concept Awards

The DoD Breast Cancer Research Program has released $15 million in funding opportunities in Concept Awards on December 22, 2005. The deadline for submission will be February 7, 2005 Eastern Time. All details for application are available in the Program Announcement located on the CDMRP electronic submission website: https://cdmrp.org/Program_Announcements_and_Forms/.

1. Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program Announces $10 million for Concept Awards

The Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP) is offering Concept Awards to spark new ideas and foster the development of new, innovative, high-risk but potentially high-gain avenues of investigation. This award mechanism provides investigators with the opportunity to pursue serendipitous observations and/or explore untested ideas relevant to breast cancer. Research completed through a Concept Award may provide sufficient preliminary data to enable the investigator to prepare a proposal for future research. As such, preliminary data are not consistent with the intent of this award mechanism. As in prior years, the Concept Awards will have blinded review process; the principal investigator and institution names will not be provided during either peer or programmatic review.

These awards are designed for preliminary investigations; therefore, projects involving human subjects or human biological substances will not be supported unless they are exempt under 32 CFR 219.101(b)(4). Concept Awards provide up to $75,000 in direct costs for 1 year, plus indirect costs as appropriate.

2. The timeline for the BCRP Concept Award is:

Online Proposal Information: Prior to proposal submission
Proposal Submission/Approval Deadline: 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, February 7, 2006
Peer Review (First Tier): March 2006
Programmatic Review (Second Tier): May 2006
Request for Additional Documents: As early as 2 weeks after the completion of programmatic review
Notification Letter: Approximately 4 weeks after the completion of programmatic review
Award Start Date: Anticipated between July and September 2006

3. Synopsis Chart for the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program
Concept Award of December 22, 2005

DoD BCRP Award Mechanism: Concept Award
Experience of Principal Investigator: All levels of experience
Key Mechanism Elements: Fund exploration of untested, high-risk questions relevant to breast cancer, Preliminary data not required
Dollars Available: maximum of $75,000 for direct costs over a 1-year performance period, plus indirect costs as appropriate
Submission Deadline: February 7, 2006


4.) Quick Tips:

Submitting researchers should contact their Office of Research Administration, as soon as they are considering submitting proposals to the DoD cancer research programs. A research administrator must complete the final steps of the electronic submission.
Details concerning the proposal portion of the submission start on page 8 of the Program Announcement.

The Electronic Submission Site is: https://cdmrp.org/. You can select the header tab “Program Announcements and Forms” and download the Program Announcement without signing in.

Help Line: Questions related to electronic submission:
E-mail: help-proposals-cdmrp@cdmrp.org
Phone: 301-682-5507
Help Line: Questions related to the program, proposal format or required documentation:
Phone: 301-619-7079 Fax: 301-619-7792
E-mail: cdmrp.pa@det.amedd.army.mil

Recent Funding Opportunities

Some recent funding opportunities of broad interest include the following:

“Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health” is a recent multiple-Institute Program Announcement that will use the R01, R21 and R03 award mechanisms.


“Interdisciplinary Partnerships in Environmental Health Sciences” is a Program Announcement that will use the R01 and R21 award mechanisms and seeks to foster scientific collaboration between clinical and basic investigators.

“Neuroscience Blueprint Interdisciplinary Center Core Grants” is a trans-institute RFA (letters of intent due Dec. 19) administered by NINDS designed to create and support cooperative activities with broad impact in neuroscience.

Prescott Deininger attended a Board of Regents meeting recently to begin planning of a Katrina Research Symposium to be held at the New Orleans Marriott on April 3-4, 2006. The outcome of this symposium will be an RFP from the Board of Regents for Katrina-related research. Approximately $5M will be available in that competition. The topics of interest will include Environmental and Engineering infrastructure, Health, Lifelines (communication and transportation), Education and Economics. The Board is seeking faculty members to participate as committee members and if you wish to nominate yourself or someone else, please contact Dr. Deninger as soon as possible. Tulane has also been asked to identify someone to be more heavily involved (i.e. a co-chair), and Dr. Deninger should be contacted about that as well.

“Building Careers in Women’s Health” is an internal competition (Due date Dec. 19) for proposals that may include faculty salary and scholarship funds. Please contact Jeanette Magnus if you have faculty who may be interested in this program focused on cardiovascular disease and risk factors. Award start dates will be July 1, 2006.

The Doris Duke Charitable Trust has announced several clinical scientist awards that include salary support for new investigators.

G.E. Healthcare (Amersham) Discounts Offered

GE Healthcare is offering Hurricane Relief Pricing with discounts up to 50% through Feb. 29, 2006. See the Vendor Discount Page for details.

Research Conference Call - Summary

Research Conference Call
11/30/05

Facilities Overview
Nick Altiero reported that the St. Charles Campus Engineering facilities are in good shape and have been recently cleaned up. There is some minor damage, but faculty have been allowed back. A process is in place wherein faculty are instructed after they arrive regarding completion of loss inventory forms and related issues. Engineering faculty are expected to be returning gradually through January 2.

Gary McPherson reported that the Israel and Stern science buildings on the St. Charles Campus have been lagging behind. They are still without ventilation, although they do have electricity. During the mold remediation that is ongoing in the Stern basement a water line was damaged and as a result the water has been turned off until Thursday. The Israel building utilities are tied to those of the Stern building, and that is delaying the re-entry process there. Laura Levy wanted to be sure to communicate that the reason the Stern and Israel building are not yet fully functional is entirely due to the damage those buildings sustained, and is not because they are considered to have lower priority. The Stern basement had about eight feet of water that remained for an extended period of time and is therefore much like the School of Medicine building in terms of damage. Dr. Levy reminded everyone that they can place some uptown campus researchers in the JBJ building. There is also the possibility of placing some of those people in the Boggs building. Dr. McPherson reported that the NMR in the Coordinated Instrumentation Facility has been powered up and appears to be working fine.

On the Health Sciences Campus, the JBJ building is fully functional except for a recent problem with the steam caused by work going on outside the building. There are reports that the steam in the JBJ building may be out for a week to ten days, and Laura Levy will check on that situation, as it will affect the vivarium, autoclaves, and building heating system.

Beginning this Saturday, the JBJ building will be accessible to Tulane researchers on weekends from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. All entries to the building, however, must be made at 9 a.m., after which the doors will be locked because there are not currently enough security officers.

Repopulation of the Tidewater Building began last week and is proceeding smoothly, albeit with limited elevator service.

The School of Medicine Building is lagging behind, but recent estimates are that the “C” component of the building (the newest section) will be open in a couple of weeks. The “A” and “B” components of the building will not be ready for several weeks, possibly as many as 6-8. We are working on a plan for occupancy of the “C” component of the building. There are complications in doing this because of security issues and the need to restrict access to the other sections of the building.

Funding Opportunities
Laura Levy reported that the visit by the NIEHS Director last Monday went well and that NIEHS intends to issue a series of R03 RFAs covering a broad range of Katrina-related and environmental topics very soon. Dr. McLachlan reported that his group put together a presentation on their respiratory health initiative and that they are exploring the possibility of some sort of expedited funding mechanism because the regular grant cycle will take too long to allow researchers to capture some of the hurricane’s effects. He said that he felt the NIEHS staff were favorably impressed with Tulane’s capabilities and ability to pull together this sort of effort. Tulane has communicated the message to NIEHS that we need some sort of expedited review and award process in order to keep from missing research opportunities presented by the hurricane. The Mary Kay Ash Foundation recently announced a competition for grants in the area of ovarian, uterine, breast or cervical cancer. The announcement has been distributed to faculty via the Office of Research listservs. Also, NSF has recently issued its announcement for the Major Research Instrumentation Program.

Future Meetings
The next conference call will take place in two weeks. Laura Levy is seeking feedback from faculty as to the frequency and usefulness of these conference calls.

BORSF Katrina Forum Comment Deadline Extended

As a follow up to the memorandum from Commissioner E. Joseph Savoie disseminated earlier this month, please note that the deadline to suggest topics, personnel, and organization for the 2006 New Orleans Forum has been extended from December 1 to December 7, 2005. Information is available at www.laregents.org.

New England Biolabs Discount Offered

New England Biolabs is offering discounts to researchers who need to re-stock their freezers. See the Vendor Discount Page for details on this and other vendor discounts.

Director of Research Contact Information

Kathy Kozar is relocating back to New Orleans and will be working out of Room 400a, Gibson Hall. Please use her tulane.edu E-mail ID (kkozar@tulane.edu). She can be contacted by telephone at 504-314-7863.

La. Board of Regents Announces 2006 Forum in New Orleans

At its meeting of October 27, 2005, the Board of Regents unanimously approved a proposal to convene two forums for university faculty, staff, and students, as well as community and private sector representatives, to promote Louisiana’s Post-Katrina/Rita research and educational leadership (see Below). These forums will be held in New Orleans in the spring of 2006 and spring of 2007. While the specific agendas of the meetings have not been set, the general topic of the 2006 Forum will be “Recovery and Rebuilding of New Orleans and the Louisiana Coast,” while the 2007 Forum will address “Research and Educational Advancement.”

• Memo From Commissioner Joseph E. Savoie
  Louisiana’s Post-Katrina/Rita Research and Educational Leadership
• Board of Regents' Conclusions and Actions:
  Post-Katrina/Rita 2006 and 2007 Research and Educational Forums
• Flyer:
  The Role of STEM Research in the Recovery and Rebuilding of New Orleans and the Louisiana Coast.

NIH - Electronic Proposal Submission Schedule

NIH plans to transition all of its competing grant programs from paper to electronic format by May 2007. Traditional research project grant (R01s) will need to be submitted electronically beginning with the Oct. 1, 2006 submission deadline. NIH urges grantees and principal investigators to begin preparing for electronic submission as soon as possible. See the NIH Electronic Submission Website for details and the complete schedule.

http://era.nih.gov/ElectronicReceipt/

Vendor Discounts

Some vendors are offering substantial discounts for Tulane investigators affected by Katrina. The vendor contacts are:

GE Healthcare (formerly Amersham Biosciences)
Hurricane Relief pricing will be in effect through 2/28/06.

• 1D Electrophoresis Units – 35% discount [*through 12/30 order 2 eligible units (does not need to be 2 of the same unit) and receive a 50% discount on both units]
• Protein Expression – 40% discount
• PCR consumables – 30% discount
• Any spectrophotometers – 20% discount [*through 12/30 a 25% discount is available on select instrument packages]
• Nucelic Acid Purification products – 50% discount e.g. genomic preps, TempliPhi, ProbeQuant G50
• ECL Western blotting reagents – 20% discount
• Hyperfilm – 19% discount
• Protein Detection, Rainbow Marker – 15% discount
• 10% discount on many other products
  
  Discounts will be automatic except for those noted with asterisks.
  For information on * specials or other questions please contact
  Jacqui Carter, your GE Healthcare Core Products Representative.
  jacqui.carter@ge.com
  800-526-3593 x 8133

Invitrogen:
75% on common molecular biology reagents through '05.
Michelle Bell
Account Manager II
Invitrogen Corporation
(800) 955-6288 x61409
Michelle.bell@invitrogen.com

BD Biosciences:
50% on antibodies.
Eric Barnhart, M.S.
Research Reagent Sales Specialist
BD BioSciences - Pharmingen & Immunocytometry Systems
800-451-4557 x 1869
Fax 214-370-5979
Cell - 214-662-1928
Eric_Barnhart@bd.com

Sigma-Aldrich
Up to 70% on a wide range of items.
Promotion Code 444
Call 800-325-3010 or order online.
Offer expires November 30, 2005

Stratagene
40% on biologicals, 15% on instruments through '05.
Bobbi A. Adams
Senior Account Manager - S. TX, LA and MS
Voice: 1-800-424-5444 ext. 16017
Cell: 985-788-0993
E-mail: bobbi.adams@stratagene.com
Quotation # K123. Expires 12/31/05

IDT
50% on replacement oligos ordered from them previously.
Trisha Moon
Assistant Manager of Customer Support
Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc.
tmoon@idtdna.com
Ph: 800-328-2661
Fx: 319-626-8466

Ambion
$2,000 per researcher, free; all to be submitted together as an institutional request once inventory is done.
Gail Morton
National Sales Manager
gmorton@ambion.com
800-888-8804 x 6157

TeleSage
GSA (Government Contract) Pricing
Diana Borja
dborja@telesage.com
153 E. Franklin Street/PO Box 750
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514 USA
919-942-8849

New England Biolabs
One-time 50% discount on a restocking order when investigators return.
Penny Fu Devoe
New England Biolabs
Marketing Services
240 County Rd
Ipswich, MA 01938
tel: (978) 380-7220 (Direct Line)
tel: 1-800-632-5227 x7220
fax: (978) 380-7479
e-mail: devoe@neb.com

Health Sciences Ctr. Library Up

The Rudolph Matas Medical Library at the Tulane Health Sciences Center is now accessible at: http://www.tulane.edu/~matas/ .

Access to Electronic Journals Restored

Access to electronic journals via the Tulane Library is now available. Go to the e-Journals Page on the Library's website in the Research section.

BORSF Proposals - Deadlines and Submission Requirements

All Traditional, Undergraduate & Two-Year Enhancement proposals will now be due in the Regents' office by 4:30 p.m., Monday, November 14, 2005. Any Enhancement proposal received after that time and date will not be accepted.

The deadline for questions about all Support Fund programs and application procedures has been extended from October 1 to October 31, 2005.

For proposals submitted without appropriate administration signatures, the deadline for providing to the BoR complete cover and budget pages with all required institutional and system approvals is January 16, 2006. After this date, proposals missing signatures will be withdrawn from FY 2005-06 BoRSF competitions.

The complete list of BoRSF Program NOI and Proposal Submission Dates is posted here.

Tidewater Trip

Dr. John Clements has been coordinating building access on the Health Sciences Campus and has thus far taken over 400 people into the buildings, all of which are undergoing repairs and remediation. On this particular day a group was going into the Tidewater Building. There was generator-powered lighting in the stairwells and hallways, but no air-conditioning. To complicate matters today, there was a diesel fuel spill on the 7th floor of the parking garage, so everyone had to walk up to the third floor via the parking garage, and enter the building from the front stairwell on that level.

Tulane Facilities Statement

Tulane researchers are encouraged to send the Tulane Facilities Statement to funding agencies prior to the next review cycle. A link to the facilities statement is provided in the right-hand column of this page.