NIDDK Announcement: Resources and Funding Available for Research in Nonmalignant Hematology

The Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases (KUH) of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) supports a consortium of Cooperative Centers of Excellence in Hematology (CCEH). Each center is composed of three to four biomedical research core facilities providing state-of-the-art cellular and molecular biology tools or reagents and expertise. They each award pilot and feasibility projects as well as providing structured enrichment programs with visiting scholars and instructional presentations.

The NIDDK-supported consortium seeks to build and provide research infrastructure in the field of nonmalignant hematology. This activity helps to achieve the NIDDK director’s vision of maintaining a vigorous investigator-initiated research portfolio; preserving a stable pool of talented new investigators; fostering exceptional research training and mentoring opportunities; and ensuring knowledge dissemination through outreach and communications. The consortium accomplishes its mission primarily by sharing resources of the CCEH consortium and fertilizing collaborations across disciplines. More information is available via www.niddk.nih.gov/about-niddk/meet-the-director/mission-vision/Pages/mission-vision.aspx.

This year (fiscal year 2017) the consortium piloted a Partner Pilot and Feasibility (PPF) program to initiate collaborations by funding projects that use cores located at two different Centers. In the fall of 2017, the PPF program will begin to accept applications from investigators in U.S.-based institutions to partner with one of the center’s core facilities. These PPF projects need to include plans for collaboration and not simply describe use of the core facilities. Interested applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the core director of the facility prior to submission of the application.

The consortium consists of 17 core facilities that provide:

• CD34 purified primary human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor mobilized and nonmobilized apheresis collections

• Xenotransplantation studies (including highly engineered humanized mice and large animal models)

• High-resolution microscopy (with cytoskeleton and hematopathology expertise)

• Time-lapse microscopy

• Human induced pluripotent stem cells generation

• Multiple genome editing procedures, predominantly, CRISPR/Cas-9

• Assistance with retroviral/lentiviral design and production

• Assistance with hematopoiesis assays (e.g., murine bone marrow collection, fluorescence-activated cell sorting, colony-forming units)

• CRISPR libraries

• Zebrafish and other model organisms for the study of human hematologic diseases

• Metabolomic profiles on large and small numbers of cells

• Heme and iron quantitative assays

• Angiogenic assays, especially during hematopoietic development in the fetal liver

• Flow cytometry assays

The table provides contact information for the currently funded NIDDK CCEHs.