For 25 years, NIGMS has supported AIDS-related structural biology research that has provided fundamental insights into the replication of HIV and contributed toward the development of essential therapeutics.
As Joe Gindhart discussed in an earlier Feedback Loop post, NIGMS marked the anniversary of this program with a special meeting in March. Many participants expressed excitement and offered overwhelmingly positive feedback about the program, in particular the progress and achievements reported from the three P50 Centers for the Determination of Structures of HIV/Host Complexes: Center for the Structural Biology of Cellular Host Elements in Egress, Trafficking and Assembly of HIV, HIV Accessory and Regulatory Complexes and Center for HIV Protein Interactions.
Following endorsement by our Advisory Council at its meeting last month, we plan to reissue the centers RFA this summer. The new RFA will encompass the goals of the previous one, but will be broadened to include RNA/protein and membrane/protein interactions and a push to move beyond static structures to characterize the dynamics of complexes as a way to improve future drug design. This reissued RFA will also include a new requirement for a collaborative development program intended to recruit skilled investigators, especially early stage investigators, into AIDS-related structural biology research. We expect to fund four or five centers for a 5-year period.
I will post more information about this funding opportunity once it has been published in the NIH Guide.