UPDATE: This position is now closed.

We’re recruiting for an outstanding individual to serve as branch chief in our Division of Biophysics, Biomedical Technology, and Computational Biosciences (BBCB). This person will oversee the scientific and administrative management of the Biomedical Technology (BT) Branch and will be responsible for advising, directing, and evaluating program activities for a portfolio of research grants in one of the branch areas.

Credit: NIGMS.

We in the NIGMS family are deeply saddened by the loss of our former director Marvin Cassman, Ph.D., on August 6. Dr. Cassman joined NIGMS in 1975 as a health scientist administrator in what was then the Cellular and Molecular Basis of Disease Program, advancing through the ranks to become NIGMS’ deputy director, acting director, and from 1996 to 2002, director. Dr. Cassman’s tenure as director coincided with the period of NIH’s budget doubling, and he ably led NIGMS’ establishment of key initiatives that have had a worldwide impact. These included the Protein Structure Initiative, the goal of which was to make the three-dimensional, atomic-level structures of most proteins easily obtainable from knowledge of their corresponding DNA sequences. This enabled investigators to apply the new paradigm of high-throughput structure determination to study important biological and biomedical problems.

Credit: NIGMS.

I am deeply saddened to tell you that Ward Smith, chief of our Biomedical Technology Branch in the Division of Biophysics, Biomedical Technology, and Computational Biology, passed away at the beginning of July.

We’ve published a notice of special interest (NOSI) (NOT-GM-20-025) to address the urgent need for research on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We’ll accept competitive revisions (supplements) in three specific scientific areas:

• Incorporation of data related to SARS-CoV-2 into ongoing research efforts to develop predictive models for the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other related infectious agents (all grant and cooperative agreement activity codes)
• Repurposing or modification of diagnostic tools currently under development to enable rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection (SBIR/STTR grants only)
• Rapid development of potential therapeutic agents for COVID-19 (SBIR/STTR grants only)

UPDATE: The slides [PDF] from the recent webinar are now available.

NIGMS, in partnership with the Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) and twelve other institutes and centers of NIH, invites applications for administrative supplements to eligible Institutional Development Award (IDeA) grants to address important issues of women’s health in the IDeA states. We encourage a broad range of research addressing women’s health issues with a special interest in maternal and infant mortality and morbidity, as well as their underlying causes.

NIH has published two new funding opportunity announcements (FOAs): PAR-20-089, Biomedical Data Repository (U24 - Clinical Trials Not Allowed) and PAR-20-097, Biomedical Knowledgebase (U24 - Clinical Trials Not Allowed). As noted in the FOAs, data repositories and knowledgebases have distinct functions, metrics for success, and sustainability needs. In order to support these resources most effectively, NIGMS intends to fund them as separate cooperative agreement grants. NIGMS applications proposing a free-standing data repository or knowledgebase resource must apply under one of these FOAs. Thus, applications submitted as R01s or R35s will not be considered for funding.

For questions about NIGMS’ support for these resources, please contact Veerasamy Ravichandran.

Sepsis is a serious condition that affects about 1.7 million people and causes about 270,000 deaths annually in the U.S. Because it involves multiple organ systems, it is also one of the clinical research areas supported by NIGMS. Despite decades of research, sepsis remains a poorly understood condition with limited diagnostic tools or therapeutic interventions.

Nearly a year ago, we established a working group of our Advisory Council to advise us on how best to advance sepsis research. At last week’s Council meeting, Dr. John Younger and Dr. Monica Kraft, co-chairs of the working group, presented the group’s recommendations:

UPDATE: If you are looking for the program director of a specific NIGMS research portfolio, please see our Contacts by Research Area page.

Like most organizations, NIGMS has been modernizing many of its systems. One recent change is our phone system. To increase efficiency and to enable our support staff to handle higher-level responsibilities, we want you to know that the best way to now reach a program director or scientific review administrator is to send him or her an email. If you want the person to call you back, please provide your contact information and grant or application number. If you don't know the email address of the NIGMS staff member, it can be found easily by entering the name in our Staff Directory. This directory also provides direct phone numbers of each staff member where you can leave a voicemail message.

The NIGMS website provides information that you may find helpful in determining the staff member you want to contact. If you are still uncertain about whom to contact, you may call the main NIGMS phone number (301-496-7301) and leave a message.

NIGMS' program staff are, as always, interested in hearing from you, answering your questions, and addressing your concerns.

NIGMS has published a Notice in the NIH Guide to clarify the types of conferences and scientific meetings that the Institute will support through the R13 activity code. If you are thinking of requesting NIGMS funding for a meeting, it’s important to know that:

UPDATE: Consult the MIRA webpage or your program officer for the current notices of funding opportunities.

Since supplemental grant funding comes in a variety of flavors, with different purposes, it’s not surprising that there’s confusion about which kinds of supplements MIRA grantees may apply for and which they may not. Here’s a quick run-down.