Grants

DC Department of Small & Local Business Development

Provides grants, technical assistance, and certification programs for small businesses in Washington DC, with focus on Certified Business Enterprises.

$10K – $250K

small businesseconomic developmentcertification

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

DC2026: 18th International Symposium on Dendritic Cells

NIAID - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

SUMMARY The 18th International Symposium on Dendritic Cells (DC2026) will be held October 11-14, 2026, at the Kona Kai Resort in San Diego, California. Founded in 1990 by Nobel Laureate Dr. Ralph Steinman, this biennial symposium is the premier international meeting dedicated to dendritic cell (DC) biology and its roles in health and disease. For more than three decades, this conference has served as the central forum for presenting breakthroughs in innate and adaptive immunity, host-pathogen interactions, immune regulation, inflammation, vaccine development, and translational immunology. DC2026 will also mark the 15-year anniversary of Dr. Steinman’s Nobel Prize, providing a milestone opportunity to assess progress, define emerging challenges, and chart future scientific directions. DC2026 will convene approximately 350-400 investigators across immunology, infectious diseases, virology, bacteriology, cancer immunotherapy, mucosal and tissue immunity, systems and computational immunology, and clinical translation. The program will include an Inaugural Keynote, a Closing Keynote, a Ralph Steinman Legacy Symposium, a Translational Immunology Symposium, and five thematic plenary sessions highlighting advances in DC development, tissue specialization, innate sensing, antigen presentation, antimicrobial immunity, tolerance and autoimmunity, tumor immunity, and emerging immunological technologies. The meeting will also feature four parallel thematic symposia, 26 abstract-selected short talks, 10 Flash Poster Spotlight presentations, and two poster sessions with more than 150 presentations. Early-career investigators will constitute at least 60% of all oral presentations, ensuring strong representation of rising leaders in the field. A central mission of DC2026 is to foster trainee development and support the next generation of immunologists. Dedicated activities will include trainee oral and flash presentations, two afternoon poster sessions, a “Meet the Editors” career-development discussion, structured mentorship opportunities, and trainee travel awards selected through blinded review. The meeting will also provide extensive opportunities for informal scientific exchange and collaboration through structured networking and extended discussion periods integrated into the program. DC2026 is committed to cultivating an inclusive, respectful, and safe environment for all participants and will adhere to all NIH requirements for accessibility accommodations, safety policies, and code-of-conduct procedures. By bringing together diverse experts and trainees to share cutting-edge, unpublished discoveries, DC2026 will accelerate scientific progress, stimulate new collaborations, and advance fundamental and translational understanding of DC biology directly aligned with NIAID’s mission to improve human health by strengthening immunity, host defense, and immune regulation.

Up to $11K

2027-06-30

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

DCEO GRANT

Chicago Department of Transportation

CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 19TH WARD

Up to $184K

2026-10-31

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

DCS Facilities Repair

Dorchester County

DCS Facilities Repair

Up to $287K

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

DCS Facilities Repair

Dorchester County

DCS Facilities Repair

Up to $287K

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

DDX3X and post-transcriptional regulation of cardiac sex differences

NHLBI - National Heart Lung and Blood Institute

PROJECT SUMMARY Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of congenital malformation [1, 2]. Many CHD conditions exhibit bias based on sex [3-7]. However, there is a significant gap in our understanding of the mechanisms behind these sex-specific differences. In a series of consecutive genetic screens in mice, we identified the X-chromosome gene DEAD-Box Helicase 3 X-Linked (Ddx3x) as regulating male-female cardiac sex differences [8]. DDX3X is expressed in cardiomyocytes and escapes X-inactivation in human hearts [9, 10]. Consistently, we demonstrated that in mice, DDX3X expression is reduced in Turner syndrome (XO) hearts compared to wildtype females (XX) and increased in Klinefelter syndrome (XXY) hearts compared to wildtype males (XY)[3, 8]. Clinical studies have shown that Ddx3x is associated with CHD in females but not males [11-14]. To investigate the cardiac mechanisms associated with the cardiac sex differences related to Ddx3x, we created a conditional allele for Ddx3x. We demonstrated that the deletion of Ddx3x in cardiomyocytes (CM) results in embryonic death accompanied by cardiac desynchrony in female mice but not in male mice by embryonic day (E) 11.5, suggesting that DDX3X plays a function in female cardiac excitation- contraction coupling (ECC). We have gone on to define the endogenous cardiac DDX3X interactome and showed that DDX3X interacts with proteins involved in mRNA translation. We further identified genes essential in ECC as potential DDX3X target mRNAs. Based on our preliminary results, we hypothesize that DDX3X regulates sex-specific mRNA translation that is critical for female cardiac excitation-contraction coupling. 1

Up to $693K

2030-03-31

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

De Corazon Spanish Language CPR Trainings

Villa Comunitaria

De Corazón program,(Spanish for From the Heart), is a community-based Spanish language Heartsaver CPR train-the-trainer program. Promotoras Comunitaria is a program located in South Seattle to address the disparity experienced by the Latinx community in CPR intervention due to linguistic and cultural barriers. In 2019 we will provide the De Corazón Spanish language CPR training to at least 45 low-income Seattle residents free of cost in South Park during two training sessions in the Fall and Winter. The first training will be on November 23, 2019 from 1-5 p.m. located at 8201 10th Avenue South. The Promotoras will also participate in community activities to raise awareness about heart health, CPR, and to promote the three upcoming opportunities to get trained in CPR in Spanish. This project will be completed by January 2020.

Up to $5K

EducationHealtharts

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

De novo design of allosterically regulated proteins to study intramolecular signal transduction

NIGMS - National Institute of General Medical Sciences

This proposal aims to design proteins from scratch that can undergo intramolecular allosteric regulation, a process crucial to central metabolism, genetic regulatory networks, and biological sensing. If we truly understand the molecular biomechanics behind allosteric regulation, then we should be able to design proteins that use remote binding of a ligand to control small molecule release. Recent work has demonstrated the possibility of changing remote protein conformation through fold switching or domain displacement. Researchers from my postdoctoral training lab have shown that designed proteins can bind small molecules with sub-nanomolar affinity, designed enzymes can use a remote binding event to suppresses reactivity, and designed membrane proteins acting as part of a protein complex can transmit information from one binding event to influence distant kinase activity. Building from these recent advances in protein design, as well as the wealth of experimental data on signal transduction in helical bundle proteins such as G-protein coupled receptors and histidine kinases, the proposed research aims to develop new helical bundle proteins where binding of a ligand at one site increases the population of protein in a strained conformation, causing small molecule release at a second site. The capacity to design targeted proteins capable of small molecule delivery in response to changes in ligand concentration would give rise to powerful new capacities for biotechnology, and this proposal aims to explore release of two drugs for which de novo protein binders have been recently designed. In Aim 1, I will design a protein that releases the anti-cancer drug rucaparib upon binding of the pro-tumor metabolite itaconate. In Aim 2, I will design a protein that releases the anti-cancer drug apixaban following itaconate binding. Binding sites for the allosteric ligand and releasable molecule will be incorporated onto protein scaffolds built from stable helical bundles in combination with loops and kinks generated from diffusion-based probabilistic models. The resulting proteins will be expressed and purified, their binding will be assayed using fluorescence spectroscopy, and their structures will be determined using X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy. Once successful allosterically regulated proteins are designed, new ligand binding sites will be positioned increasingly distal to the active site to explore progressively more remote strain transduction. Demonstrating intramolecular allosteric regulation within a single protein monomer will extend our understanding of a longstanding problem in protein biophysics. The proposed research project will advance my training goals as I integrate computational protein design, molecular biology and biochemistry techniques for cloning, protein expression and purification, and biophysical characterization. Combining my existing experience in physical chemistry with the skills developed during the proposed research will prepare me for an independent research career using proteins and synthetic macromolecules to understand and intervene in strained biological macromolecules.

Up to $75K

2028-02-29

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

De novo design of artificial haloperoxidase enzymes

NIGMS - National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Project Summary/Abstract Understanding the relationships between three-dimensional protein structure, metal reactivity, and catalytic function promises routes to new drugs and treatments, green chemical processes, and bespoke catalysts. However, the complexity of natural metalloenzymes makes the design of wholly new enzymes one of the greatest challenges in chemical biology. Thus, the de novo design of functional metalloproteins, in which both the protein scaffold and metal-containing active site are designed “from scratch”, presents the most stringent test of our understanding of protein folding and protein-metal structure-function relationships. Using new machine-learning tools for protein design and structure prediction, this work will investigate metalloenzyme structure-function relationships though the de novo design of vanadium- and heme-dependent haloperoxidase enzymes. These enzymes oxidize halides (X–) to X+ using H2O2 to promote halogen incorporation into diverse organic substrates. Halogen atoms often greatly increase the bioactivity of organic compounds, making these reactions important both for human health (e.g., pharmaceuticals, hormones, antibiotics) and the environment (e.g., toxic and ozone-depleting aerosols such as bromoform). The designed proteins will be expressed and characterized using a diverse array of structural, biophysical, and spectroscopic methods. Haloperoxidase activity will be measured, and the effects of primary and secondary sphere mutations will be studied. Potential alternative reactions catalyzed by the enzymes will be assayed, and the binding and activities of similar metal-oxo species (e.g., MoO42–, WO42–) will be investigated. By designing haloperoxidases using only minimal starting motifs, this work will provide valuable insights into the requisite structural and chemical features enabling efficient haloperoxidation catalysis.

Up to $75K

2028-12-31

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

De novo Design of Proteins for Catalysis and Fluorescence Imaging

NIGMS - National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Project Summary/Abstract Protein-small molecule interactions regulate protein function, signal transduction, and enzymatic catalysis in biological systems. Advances in protein engineering have enabled modifications of natural protein-small molecule interactions for diverse applications, including developing protein tags for fluorescence imaging and engineering enzymes for biocatalysis. However, designing de novo proteins to bind small molecules and catalyze reactions remains a significant challenge, often requiring extensive screening and experimental optimization. In my recent work, I developed a nature-inspired strategy leveraging weak protein affinities for non-primary substrates to create functional proteins. Using this approach, I designed Fluorescent ABLE (FABLE), a fluorophore-binding protein, and Kemp eliminase ABLE (KABLE), an enzyme for Kemp elimination. The initial Kemp eliminase design achieved an activity of 6600 M⁻¹s⁻¹ in just five attempts, surpassing previous computational designs by over an order of magnitude. Saturation mutagenesis produced a quadruple mutant with an activity of 600,000 M⁻¹s⁻¹, setting a new benchmark for base-catalyzed Kemp eliminase and outperforming mechanistically similar natural enzymes. These successes highlight the frontier of de novo protein design for specific ligand interactions. A deeper understanding of protein-small molecule interactions in de novo proteins is crucial for advancing both fundamental understanding of these interactions in Nature and practical applications in protein engineering, particularly in the development of protein tags for fluorescence imaging and the design of enzymes for biocatalysis. In this proposal, In this proposal, I aim to test my hypothesis that protein dynamics, particularly the enrichment of productive conformations, contribute to the enhanced rate of KABLE1.4 using a multidisciplinary approach that includes molecular dynamics, X-ray crystallography, and NMR (Aim 1). For fluorescence imaging, I will transform the proof-of-concept de novo protein (FABLE) into a set of ready-to- use protein tags by designing proteins that bind modern rhodamine fluorophores while equipping them with a predefined set of optimal features that no existing tool offers (Aim 2). Lastly, I propose engineering de novo proteins with covalent ligand interactions, allowing stable binding and a universal protein tag for various synthetic molecules without requiring sequence redesign (Aim 3). Harnessing de novo protein design will revolutionize the ability to engineer protein-small molecule interactions, driving transformative advancements in fluorescence imaging, enzyme catalysis, and broader applications requiring precise molecular recognition.

Up to $125K

2028-04-30

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

DE-FOA-0001277 NOI for FOA DE-FOA-0001214: U.S. WIND MANUFACTURING: LARGER BLADES TO ACCESS GREATER WIND RESOUR

Golden Field Office

The purpose of this Notice of Intent is to provide potential applicants advance notice that the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Wind and Water Power Technologies Office (WWPTO), a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled ?U.S. Wind Manufacturing: Larger Blades to Access Greater Wind Resources and Lower Costs", Number DE-FOA-0001214. This FOA will support Research and Development (R&D) partnerships leading to innovative designs and processes for the manufacturing and assembly of wind turbine blades in order to facilitate deployment of the next generation of multi-megawatt wind turbines. Supported projects will develop cost-competitive integrated solutions that address the challenges of fabricating, transporting overland and assembling rotor blades longer than 60m, with design concepts scalable to greater lengths, and installing them at wind turbine hub heights of at least 120m. Multi-organizational teams including at least an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) turbine designer, a blade manufacturer and an installation/logistics firm are expected. The proposed FOA is intended to be forward-looking in addressing U.S. market dynamics and domestic manufacturing opportunities through innovative solutions to constructing and assembling larger blades directly applicable to mitigating U.S. transportation constraints. Awards under the FOA will support partnerships between DOE and research and development (R&D) teams, including manufacturers. The resulting designs must be manufacturable in the U.S. in accordance with the U.S. Manufacturing Plan to be submitted as part of the application. NO APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED THROUGH THIS NOTICE. Please do not submit questions or respond to this Notice of Intent. Prospective applicants to the FOA should begin developing partnerships, formulating ideas, and gathering data in anticipation of the issuance of this FOA. The applicant must first register and create an account on the EERE eXCHANGE website. A User Guide for EERE eXCHANGE can be found on the EERE website https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/Manuals.aspxafter logging in to the system.

energyclean energy

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

DE-FOA-0002021: Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement No. DE-FOA-0002022

Golden Field Office

Modification 0001: EERE is compiling a Teaming Partner List to facilitate the widest possible national participation in the formation of applicant teams for Topic 3. Information about the Teaming Partner List for Topic 3 is included in the full text of the NOI posted at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/ The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO), Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0002022 entitled Fiscal Year 2019 H2@Scale Funding Opportunity Announcement. Hydrogen is one part of DOE s all-of-the-above energy portfolio, and can offer options for affordable and secure energy for transportation, as well as for stationary and industrial applications. The United States produces over 10 million metric tons of hydrogen per year, used primarily for petroleum refining and fertilizer production, but there are a number of opportunities to increase hydrogen generation and utilization across the country. H2@Scale is an initiative to enable affordable and reliable largescale hydrogen generation, transport, storage, and utilization in the United States across sectors. For example, electrolyzers can produce hydrogen by splitting water when power generation exceeds demand. This can reduce or prevent curtailment of renewables, optimize baseload (e.g., nuclear power) assets, and enable grid stability and resiliency, while also producing hydrogen as a fuel or feedstock for end users. In addition, hydrogen produced from existing baseload assets can be stored, distributed, and used as a fuel for transportation, stationary power, process or building heat, and industrial sectors (e.g. steel manufacturing), creating an additional revenue stream for those assets. FCTO focuses on research, development, and innovation to advance hydrogen and fuel cells for transportation and diverse applications enabling energy security, resiliency, and a strong domestic economy in emerging technologies. This notice of intent (NOI) is issued so that interested parties are aware of the EERE s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this NOI is subject to change. EERE will not respond to questions concerning this NOI. Once the FOA has been released, EERE will provide an avenue for potential applicants to submit questions. EERE plans to issue the FOA in February of 2019 via the EERE Exchange website https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/. If applicants wish to receive official notifications and information from EERE regarding this FOA, they should register in EERE Exchange. When the FOA is released, applications will be accepted only through EERE Exchange.

$1 – $2

energyclean energy

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

DE-FOA-0002231: Notice of Intent to Issue Funding Opportunity Announcement No. DE-FOA-0002229

Golden Field Office

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) intends to issue, on behalf of the Fuel Cell Technologies Office, a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) entitled H2@Scale New Markets FOA , to advance innovations that will build new markets for H2@Scale. Transformational R&D and innovative concepts for new H2@Scale markets will be key to expanding hydrogen opportunities and converting them into market solutions that benefit the American people and provide added value for the economy. Potential topics under the FOA include: Electrolyzer Manufacturing R&D Advanced Carbon Fiber for Compressed Storage Tanks Fuel Cell R&D for Heavy-Duty Applications H2@Scale New Markets R&D HySteel H2@Scale New Markets Demonstrations Training and Workforce Development This FOA supports the vision of affordable and large-scale production, storage, transport, and utilization of hydrogen in the United States. This notice of intent (NOI) is issued so that interested parties are aware of the EERE s intention to issue this FOA in the near term. All of the information contained in this NOI is subject to change. EERE will not respond to questions concerning this NOI. Once the FOA has been released, EERE will provide an avenue for potential applicants to submit questions. EERE plans to issue the FOA in January of 2020 via the EERE Exchange website https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/. If applicants wish to receive official notifications and information from EERE regarding this FOA, they should register in EERE Exchange. When the FOA is released, applications will be accepted only through EERE Exchange.

$1 – $2

energyclean energy

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

DE-FOA-0003646 Notice of Intent to Issue DE-FOA-0003647 Accelerating Scale-up and Pre-piloting of Emerging Chemical Technologies (ASPECT)

Golden Field Office

DE-FOA-0003646 Notice of Intent to Issue DE-FOA-0003647 Accelerating Scale-up and Pre-piloting of Emerging Chemical Technologies (ASPECT)

2026-09-14

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

DE-FOA-0003646 Notice of Intent to Issue DE-FOA-0003647 Accelerating Scale-up and Pre-piloting of Emerging Chemical Technologies (ASPECT)

Golden Field Office

CMEI intends to issue, on behalf of AFFO, a NOFO titled, “Accelerating Scale-up and Pre-piloting of Emerging Chemical Technologies (ASPECT).” This NOFO will seek applications for financial assistance from entities that wish to conduct work in support of AFFO's focus on emerging chemical technologies. AFFO supports expanding the supply and use of domestic alternative feedstocks to improve supply chain resiliency of U.S. chemical production and to expand domestic manufacturing through technology innovation to lower costs and improve environmental safety of chemical production.[1] Through this NOFO, AFFO seeks to support research, development, and scale-up of novel technologies for producing chemicals from alternative and waste feedstocks. Chemicals of interest include foundational molecules that can be further transformed into high-value end-products, chemical compounds or derivatives generated either from these foundational molecules or directly from alternative feedstocks through process intensification, as well as final end-products. This NOFO will aim to support work involving chemicals that offer advantages in terms of performance or cost, or that offer benefits to America’s foreign trade or national security. The proposed chemicals can be either conventional or bio-advantaged chemicals. Conventional chemicals must possess added benefits like improved domestic supply chain resiliency, reduced U.S. imports, reduced cost, or large market growth potential. Bio-advantaged chemicals must possess favorable properties—such as enhanced durability, production efficiency, or decreased toxicity—that create new value propositions. This Notice of Intent (NOI) is for informational purposes only; DOE is not requesting comments or applications at this time. All information provided here is subject to change. This notice serves to inform interested parties that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) may issue a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). Please be aware that any future NOFO could differ significantly from what is described here, or one may not be issued at all. DOE will provide a designated channel for questions once a NOFO is officially released. This Notice of Intent can be viewed by visiting eere-exchange.energy.gov. [1]Energy Policy Act (EPAct) 2005, Pub. L. 109-58, § 931 as codified at 42 U.S.C. § 16231; EPAct 2005 § 932, as codified at 42 U.S.C § 16232.

2026-09-14

energy

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

De-implementation of Unnecessary Pre-Operative Urine Testing

NIH

Significance to VA: Routine urine testing in surgical patients, either before or after surgery, is a low value practice and leads to overprescribing of antibiotics in the VA, which then leads to serious antibiotic-related side effects, such as Clostridioides difficile infections. Multiple national societies state that surgical patients without infectious symptoms should not have routine preoperative urine tests performed, and that not all fevers need urine testing to determine a cause, such as fever immediately in the postoperative state. Unfortunately, unnecessary urine testing occurs before 15-26% of VA surgeries overall, and before over 50% of certain high- risk VA operations. We have a track record of successfully implementing evidence-based practice guidelines about urine testing in VA settings. We hypothesize that implementation of our evidence-based intervention in the operative care line at 6 VA medical centers (VAMCs) will significantly decrease rates of urine testing and days of unnecessary antibiotics for surgical patients, both before and after operations. Our long-term objective is to improve Veteran care by ensuring that Veterans undergoing surgery receive only beneficial tests and treatments. Our work aligns with the [VA priority ‘Implement value-based care solutions’ and the core competency of Implementation Science by optimizing strategies to implement evidence-base practice.] This work also supports the Quintuple Aim and the Foundations for Evidence-based Policymaking Act. Innovation & Impact: Since 2013, we have been developing, testing, and disseminating an evidence-based intervention to reduce unnecessary urine testing, the “Kicking CAUTI” program. This intervention package includes a fast and frugal algorithm to help healthcare providers distinguish between UTI and bladder colonization, interactive teaching cases, case-based audit and feedback, and virtual learning collaboratives. This intervention boosts clinician autonomy, which is important to surgeons, but it has not yet been adapted for or tested in a surgical setting. Our intervention will decrease a low value practice and improve patient outcomes by preventing downstream consequences, such as antibiotic resistance and longer hospital stays. Specific Aims: Aim 1: Adapt our ‘Kicking CAUTI’ intervention to create a surgery-tailored intervention package informed by focus groups at six VA medical centers (VAMCs). Aim 2: Conduct a stepped wedge cluster randomized trial to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the tailored intervention package at six VAMCs. Aim 3: Evaluate the intervention in terms of [cost], acceptability, and barriers and facilitators to implementation. Methodology: We will conduct a hybrid type two effectiveness/implementation study. Our conceptual model is the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) model. Aim 1: This work will be informed by focus groups with surgeons, nurses, and other operative care line personnel at six VAMCs. These stakeholders will help us tailor the Kicking CAUTI intervention to the surgical setting. Aim 2: We will conduct a stepped wedge cluster randomized trial. We will include patients undergoing surgery in these VAMCs, excluding certain types of surgery in which pre-operative urine testing is appropriate (urologic surgery). Clinical outcomes data including urinalysis, urine culture, days of antibiotics, will be extracted from Corporate Data Warehouse, in addition to surgical site infections, UTIs, length of stay and readmissions. Implementation measures will include adoption (time spent and cases discussed), penetration (providers reached), fidelity (use of intervention materials), [and dose]. Aim 3: Formative evaluations will occur through periodic reflections with local site champions and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders at the six intervention sites. [The budget impact analysis will estimate the cost of implementing the intervention and direct healthcare costs saved by the intervention from the VA’s perspective.] Path to Translation/ Implementation: We will work with our operational partners (i.e., Antimicrobial Stewardship Task Force, National Surgery Office) to disseminate this intervention to other VAMCs.

2030-02-28

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

De-risking therapeutic use in the context of lactation by coupling perturbation studies and machine learning

NICHD - Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Infants and young children are most likely to survive, grow and develop fully when breastfed. While approximately 50% of postpartum women require medications, data on the safe use of medications during lactation is often lacking. Thus, lactating mothers who take prescribed medications may stop breastfeeding or cut the duration short due to concerns about infant exposures or impacts on their milk. They may also delay much-needed treatments in order to breastfeed. Either scenario can result in impaired health for the nursing dyad. Additionally, emerging evidence suggests that some maternal medications can impact milk composition, including protein and fat content, and by extension, infant health. Despite this, current methods for assessing the safety and impacts of maternal medication use during lactation are limited in scope. Direct clinical trials involving lactating women are limited due to strong ethical concerns. Additionally, there are no tools that can be used in the drug discovery process to de-risk impacts that medications may have on lactation. Coupled with the rise in chronic maternal medical conditions, the lack of data-driven tools around maternal medication use and lactation is a major gap since millions of women are lactating at any given time in the United States. There have been significant advances in machine learning (ML) methods that predict the impacts of therapeutic compounds on cell function in the context of cancer, autoimmunity, and infectious diseases. There are also large databases that have enabled the development of ML tools for drug repurposing, redesign, and safety assessment. These methods rely predominantly on perturbation datasets, where cells are treated with compounds and their transcriptomes profiled. These datasets serve as training data that can be used to predict the biological impacts and distribution of compounds, as well as aid in the development of novel compounds. There is a clear need to build tools that broaden our understanding of how therapeutic compounds impact lactation and breast milk composition in order to support healthy decision-making and drug development for breastfeeding mothers. However, there are no models that can do this in the context of lactation, which is the result of a lack of available datasets to build these models. The overarching hypothesis of our work is that perturbation datasets with human lactocytes can be coupled with novel ML approaches to de-risk medicine use and drug development for lactating women. We will generate perturbation datasets with human cells that make milk (primary human lactocytes) (Aim 1). We will then use several ‘omics measures to determine what lactational processes and pathways are impacted by FDA-approved compounds and medications commonly used by lactating women. We will then develop novel ML methods to predict how compounds impact lactocytes to aid in the development of safer medicines for lactating women, while also factoring in predictions of drug transport into breastmilk (Aim 2). Finally, we will create engineered cell lines to assess the impact of compounds on processes fundamental to lactation, including protein production, in a scalable way (Aim 3). Our proposed work will result in a suit of methods to de-risk and inform in a data-drive way the use of therapeutics by lactating women.

Up to $562K

2031-03-31

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

Dean Foods Foundation Grants

Dean Foods Foundation

Supports nutrition, education, and community development in dairy farming communities.

$5K – $100K

nutritionEducationcommunity development

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

Dear Colleague Letter: Supplemental Opportunity for Translational Research in the Academic Community (TRAC) (NSF 10-044)

U.S. National Science Foundation

See the Dear Colleague Letter, NSF 10-044, announcing this opportunity at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10044/nsf10044.jsp The goal of fundamental research in science and engineering is the discovery of new knowledge. At the same time, there is an expectation that some of these discoveries will lay the foundation for new innovations that may eventually be used to develop new products and processes. However, for a discovery to be successfully translated into a new product or process and attract the sponsorship of or additional support from the commercial/government practitioner communities, the champions of the technology must be able to identify and communicate a development plan linking the concepts at the fundamental level with feasible application scenarios. Often this means additional research in the form of prototyping, proof of concept tests and/or scale-up or implementation. To facilitate this objective, the TRAC program provides targeted resources to researchers aimed at translating fundamental research into commercial applications. Existing NSF GOALI grantees whose research results have commercial potential can compete for support to help position their technology for translation. Funds will be provided for product or process definition, design, and testing.

sciencetechnology

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

Death Valley Invasive Plant Control Work

National Park Service

Task Agreement awarded to GBI.

Up to $45K

Environmentalsustainability

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

Debris Removal at McClure Ranch

National Park Service

United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service (NPS) Notice of Intent to Award. This is not a request for applications. This funding opportunity is to provide public notice of NPS's intention to fund the following project activities. Task Agreement P17AC01662 under Cooperative Agreement P15AC00008 with the Conservation Corps North Bay, for the project titled "Debris Removal at McClure Ranch."

Up to $41K

employmentworkforce development

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

December Community Concerts

West Seattle Community Orchestras

We will provide free concerts for the West Seattle community in December 2024. The first concert will be held on December 9, 2024 at 6pm at Chief Sealth High School located at 2600 SW Thistle St, Seattle, WA 98126. This program promotes the arts in our community through supporting children's musical education as well as local artists conducting the ensembles.

Up to $5K

Educationarts

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

Decentralized Artificial Intelligence through Controlled Emergence (DICE)

DARPA - Information Processing Technologies Office

The DICE program seeks to develop the theory and algorithms for decentralized coordination and local inference control to enable a scalable, adaptive, and resilient collective of heterogeneous AI agents that can autonomously execute sustained long-time-horizon missions in contested environments while remaining under human control. In contrast to small-scale, rigid, and fragile centralized orchestration or the high-risk unpredictable nature of ad hoc compositions of AI agents, DICE aims to harness the scalability and adaptability of self-organizing systems while minimizing risks and ensuring that the collective behavior remains predictable and aligned with intended outcomes. This approach mirrors the principles of decentralized self-organization that underpin the internet's own scalability and resilience, where robust global behavior emerges from simple, local rules.

2026-08-25

sciencetechnology

Free to search & build · $99 one-time to unlock the application pack · No subscription

Decipher the immunemodulatory functions of epithelial stem cells during wound repair

NIAMS - National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases

PROJECT SUMMARY Wound healing is a critical physiological process essential for restoring tissue homeostasis from damage and infections. However, many aged people or individuals with chronic conditions often experience delayed or defective wound repair. In the United States alone, these nonhealing wounds cause significant economic burdens, incurring more than $25 billion annually in healthcare costs. A major gap contributing to this issue is the incomplete understanding of complex cellular interactions during wound healing. Cutaneous wound repair is primarily mediated by the epithelial stem cells within the epidermis and hair follicles, whose regeneration and differentiation capacity are supported by diverse cell types forming their niche. While immune cells play pivotal roles in infection control and debris removal, the inflammatory conditions can impair stem cell function. Thus, how epithelial stem cells achieve self-renewal and differentiation within a highly inflammatory environment in injured tissues remains unclear. Addressing this gap is pivotal for advancing our knowledge of immune tolerance, barrier integrity, and wound repair biology. This proposal aims to elucidate how epithelial stem cells modulate their immunological niche to adapt to inflammatory environments and drive wound repair. Our preliminary data indicate that upon injury, the epithelial stem cells residing in the hair follicles activate robust immune-modulatory capabilities, such as upregulating CD80 expression. Importantly, these cells employ this capacity to establish close interactions with regulatory T (Treg) cells, forming a protective niche in the wound site that shields hair follicle stem cells from inflammatory damage. Moreover, we discovered an unconventional mechanism that can directly induce and maintain Foxp3 expression in wound-infiltrating effector T cells. Based on these preliminary findings, we hypothesize that: hair follicle stem cells induce effector T cells within wounds to directly differentiate into Treg cells, which build a protective niche and regulate inflammatory responses crucial for epithelial stem cell function during wound repair. Built on this hypothesis, our first objective is to identify the precursors of Treg cells induced during wound healing. Next, we will delineate the receptors on T cells that respond to CD80 signals from epithelial stem cells to drive Treg induction. Last, we will elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which CD80 stabilizes Foxp3 expression in effector T cells. Together, these studies will unveil a non-canonical mechanism of Treg induction and shed light on the remarkable immune modulatory activity of epithelial stem cells during wound repair. Ultimately, this work may uncover new strategies for improving non-healing wounds.

Up to $1.6M

2030-06-30