Murine Atlas of Genitourinary Development

The summary for the Murine Atlas of Genitourinary Development grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the National Institutes of Health, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Murine Atlas of Genitourinary Development: The genitourinary tract (GU) is the organ system most commonly affected by congenital birth defects, and many reports suggest that some of these birth defects (i.e. hypospadias and cryptorchidism) are increasing. Many signaling cascades key to normal embryonic development also play key regulatory roles in adult diseases. In addition, developmental factors are likely to be important in regenerative processes. Thus, investigations defining normal embryonic development have significant clinical relevance, given the significant health impact of congenital and acquired diseases of the genitourinary organs. Currently, genitourinary developmental research is limited by a paucity of cell specific markers for key lineages within the developing GU tract, incomplete understanding of the normal three dimensional cellular structure of the major organs of the GU tract (kidney, ureter, bladder, urethra, prostate, testis, epididymis, vas, penis, ovary, uterus, and vagina), incomplete understanding of the morphogenetic events that occur during organogenesis, and the lack of a detailed integrative database to assimilate complex temporal and spatial expression data. To address these issues, the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) invite Cooperative Agreement Applications through this PAR and a companion Request for Applications (RFA DK-04-006: link) for projects that will contribute to an anatomical and gene expression atlas of the developing murine GU tract (Murine Atlas of GU Development, MAGUD). The specific goals of the MAGUD Projects will be: 1) to develop a low resolution gene expression atlas of all genes expressed within the developing murine GU tract, 2) to perform high resolution anatomic gene expression studies using available or newly generated molecular tools, and 3) to produce an integrated, continuously updated database that will provide the entire research community with access to the data as it is generated. This PAR invites applications for the first two of these goals; applications for the database are invited through the companion RFA. The components of the atlas project will work together as a consortium. It is expected that the consortium will serve as a resource to provide reagents and data to the research community.