PDX Data Commons and Coordinating Center (PDCCC) for the PDX Development and Trial Centers Research Network (PDXNet) (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA CA 22 013

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA CA 22 013

The funding opportunity RFA-CA-22-013 is a National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute (NCI) cooperative agreement (U24) to stand up a single PDX Data Commons and Coordinating Center (PDCCC) that will serve as the central coordination, data management, and data analysis hub for the PDX Development and Trial Centers Research Network (PDXNet). PDXNet is an NCI program focused on organizing large-scale, collaborative development and preclinical testing of targeted cancer therapies using patient-derived models, with the broader aim of advancing precision medicine. A key point of this FOA is that it is not a clinical trial mechanism; the work is intended to support preclinical model development, study coordination, and translational prioritization rather than running clinical intervention studies under this award.

Structurally, the network is envisioned as up to five PDX Development and Trial Centers (PDTCs) funded under a companion FOA (RFA-CA-22-012) plus one PDCCC funded under this announcement. The PDTCs generate and test patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models and produce preclinical evidence on how cancers respond to single agents and drug combinations, while also creating new models that fill gaps in publicly available resources and improving methods and metrics for in vivo testing. The PDCCC is the glue that makes this a true network rather than a collection of separate projects: it is expected to coordinate activities across centers, support consistent data capture and harmonization, and provide integrated analytics so that results can be compared and combined across studies, sites, diseases, and therapeutic hypotheses.

A major programmatic motivation is to make PDXNet outputs directly useful for translational decision-making, especially for prioritizing therapeutic combinations involving agents in the NCI Investigational New Drugs (NCI-IND) portfolio. Those agents are evaluated clinically through the NCI Experimental Therapeutic Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN), so the PDCCC-supported data commons and cross-network analyses are meant to strengthen the evidence base that helps decide which combinations are most promising to advance toward clinical evaluation. In practice, that means the PDCCC is expected to support standardized ways of describing models, treatments, response endpoints, experimental designs, and quality metrics so that preclinical findings are interpretable and actionable beyond the originating lab.

The FOA also emphasizes close alignment with the NCI Patient-Derived Models Repository (PDMR) housed at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR). Both the PDTCs and the PDCCC are expected to collaborate with the PDMR on program goals such as developing and refining optimized standard operating procedures and facilitating sharing of PDX models. This collaboration is intended to reduce fragmentation in model generation and characterization, improve reproducibility, and ensure that models and associated datasets can be disseminated as a public resource in ways that other researchers can actually reuse.

From an administrative standpoint, this opportunity uses a cooperative agreement mechanism, meaning NIH/NCI will have substantial programmatic involvement compared with a typical research project grant. Applicants should generally expect active coordination with NIH program staff and structured network governance, deliverables, and timelines typical of a center-style award. The activity category is listed under education and health, and the CFDA listing is 93.396. The original closing date shown for the opportunity was 2022-11-01.

Eligibility is broad across the usual U.S.-based organization types, including state, county, and local governments; special districts; public and private institutions of higher education; independent school districts; federally recognized Native American tribal governments; tribal organizations that are not federally recognized; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education where applicable); for-profit organizations (excluding small businesses in one category and including small businesses in another category as listed); and other entities. The FOA explicitly calls out additional eligible applicant groups such as HBCUs, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, AANAPISIS institutions, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian serving institutions, faith-based or community-based organizations, eligible federal agencies, regional organizations, and U.S. territories or possessions. At the same time, non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations and foreign institutions) are not eligible to apply, and non-domestic components of U.S. organizations are not eligible to apply. However, foreign components, as NIH defines them in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed, which typically means discrete elements of the project may be performed outside the U.S. under an otherwise eligible U.S. applicant when well-justified and compliant with NIH policy.

Overall, the PDCCC opportunity is aimed at building the informatics and coordination backbone for PDXNet so that preclinical PDX studies conducted across multiple PDTCs can be executed with shared standards, captured in a common data ecosystem, analyzed consistently, and translated into clear recommendations that help prioritize next-step therapeutic testing, including informing which NCI-IND agent combinations are most compelling for downstream clinical evaluation in ETCTN.

• The National Institutes of Health in the education, health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "PDX Data Commons and Coordinating Center (PDCCC) for the PDX Development and Trial Centers Research Network (PDXNet) (U24 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.396.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2022-03-25.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2022-11-01. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for RFA CA 22 013

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