Dear Colleague:
The NIAID Division of Allergy, Immunology
and Transplantation has developed a draft contract solicitation
designed to establish the Collaborative Network for Clinical
Research on Immune Tolerance, beginning in FY 2000. The purpose
of this communication is to inform you of this draft solicitation,
and to obtain your comments and suggestions on the scope, design
and requirements of this new research program. An Announcement
of the requirements of the draft solicitation, and a request
for comments, are located on the NIAID web site at: http://www.NIAID.nih.gov/publications/immune/rfp1.htm,
titled:
"Collaborative
Network for Clinical Research on Immune Tolerance: Announcement
of Draft
Project Requirement."
This draft solicitation is a direct
outgrowth of the Division's scientific planning efforts over
the past year to develop a broad-based plan to accelerate research
on immune tolerance, including research in the clinical setting.
These efforts have included:
- Development of a long-range plan
for basic, pre-clinical and clinical research on immune tolerance;
- Establishment of an expert panel
to review and provide recommendations on the scope, timeliness
and design of the research plan; and
- Establishment of a second expert
panel to provide recommendations on ethical issues in clinical
trials of transplant tolerance.
The NIAID Plan for Research on Immune
Tolerance, as well as the recommendations of these two expert
panels, are located on the NIAID web site at: h,
under the document title: "NIAID Plan for Research onttp://www.NIAID.nih.gov/research/dait.htm Immune Tolerance."
The Collaborative Network for Clinical
Research on Immune Tolerance seeks to fund a consortium of
institutions and organizations with the scientific, clinical
and technical expertise necessary to:
- Design a long-term research agenda
to accelerate the study of immune tolerance for the treatment
of multiple immune-mediated diseases.
- Design and conduct clinical trials
at all phases to determine the safety, toxicity and efficacy
of promising tolerogenic approaches.
- Design and conduct studies of
the underlying mechanisms of the induction, maintenance and
loss of immune tolerance as an integral part of the clinical
trials sponsored by the Collaborative Network, as well as
by other Federal and private organizations and companies.
- Develop and validate assays for
measuring the induction, maintenance and loss of immune tolerance
in humans.
Please note that proposals are not
being solicited at this time. The Announcement is intended
to solicit comments and recommendations on the entire draft
solicitation, including the Statement of Work, the Technical
Evaluation Criteria, and the Reporting Requirements, in order
to determine the level of interest and assure that the requirements
will meet the objectives of this research program. We are particularly
interested in your questions, comments, and suggestions that
might enhance the ability of qualified institutions and organizations
to apply. The NIAID is requesting that comments, questions
and recommendations be submitted to Rosemary Hamill, NIAID
Contracting Officer for this initiative, by October 14, 1998.
Division staff will be extensively involved in providing responses
to your questions and comments, and some examples of the types
of feedback being sought are delineated in the Announcement.
Because this research
program will require extensive collaboration among many investigators,
the
NIAID has established a separate Interested Parties Web Site
to assist individuals, institutions and organizations in developing
collaborations. This web site is accessible through the Announcement
and will permit individuals to "register" their interest
and to search the database of listings posted by all interested
parties. This web site will remain open and accessible to interested
parties until approximately May 1, 1999.
The NIAID is enthusiastic about
facilitating research on immune tolerance. We look forward
to receiving further input from the extramural research community
as we pursue this promising area of immunologic investigation.
Sincerely,
Daniel Rotrosen, M.D.
Acting Director, Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation
NIAID
