Sbir/Sttr: Circulating Cells and Dna in Cancer Detection

The summary for the Sbir/Sttr: Circulating Cells and Dna in Cancer Detection 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.

Sbir/Sttr: Circulating Cells and Dna in Cancer Detection: The Division of Cancer Prevention of the National Cancer Institute invites small business applications for research projects to develop novel technologies for capturing, enriching, and preserving exfoliated abnormal cells and circulating DNA from body fluids or effusions and to develop methods to concentrate these cells and DNA for cancer biomarker detection. In body fluids, such as sputum, the number of exfoliated tumor cells is often low compared to the number of normal cells, making it difficult to detect these abnormal cells by routine cytopathology. Separation of dysplastic cells from degenerating cells and cells undergoing non-specific reactive changes is problematic. Moreover, exfoliated cells are frequently contaminated with normal cells, bacteria, and cellular debris. Therefore, enrichment methods are needed to allow for routine detection and molecular analysis of small numbers of exfoliated cells. Circulating extracellular DNA was first reported in 1948. It has been shown that the circulating DNA in the blood of cancer patients has genetic characteristics identical to those of the primary tumors. Thus, circulating DNA is an important material that may be useful for cancer detection. Currently available methods for isolating undegraded circulating DNA are limited, and there is a need to develop novel methods which improve the yield of undegraded DNA and to adapt detection assays so that this DNA can be used to detect mutations, microsatellite instabilities, loss of heterozygosity, epigenetic changes, and other molecular genetic changes. This RFA will utilize the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) mechanisms, but will be run in parallel with a program announcement of identical scientific scope (PA-04-035) that will utilize the exploratory/developmental (R21) grant mechanism.