Pancreatic Development and Regeneration: Toward Cellular Therapies for Diabetes (R01)

-Purpose. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institutes of Health (NIH), invites applications to understand how endogenous pancreatic beta cells are made by studying pancreatic development, with the goal of making pancreatic islets in culture, to explore the potential of animal or human stem/progenitor cells (embryonic or adult; if human embryonic, only NIH-approved human embryonic stem cell lines may be used) as a source for making pancreatic islets, and to determine the basic mechanisms underlying beta cell regeneration in the adult as a basis for producing new cellular therapies for diabetes. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is intended to stimulate the application of advances made in developmental biology, stem cell biology, and diabetes to develop new strategies for diabetes therapy, either through cell replacement or regeneration. This FOA is intended to intensify investigator-initiated research, to attract new investigators to the field, and to encourage interdisciplinary approaches to research in this area. -Mechanism of Support. This FOA will utilize the NIH Research Project Grant (R01) award mechanism. -Funds Available and Anticipated Number of Awards. Because the nature and scope of the proposed research will vary from application to application, it is anticipated that the size and duration of each award will also vary. The total amount awarded and the number of awards will depend upon the mechanism numbers, quality, duration, and costs of the applications received.