Each year about 1 in 700 babies is born with Down syndrome, a condition that occurs when cells contain three copies of chromosome 21. A new technique offers a proof of principle for silencing the extra copy. Using induced pluripotent stem cells derived from a person with Down syndrome, a research team led by Jeanne Lawrence of the University of Massachusetts Medical School inserted a gene called XIST into the extra chromosome 21. The gene, which normally turns off one whole X chromosome in females, rendered the chromosome copy and most of its genes inactive. The researchers plan to test the approach in a mouse model of Down syndrome and use it to further explore the biology of chromosome errors. The findings could eventually aid the development of therapies to mitigate resulting medical problems.

This work also was funded by NIH’s National Cancer Institute and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Learn more:
University of Massachusetts Medical School News Release
Lawrence Lab

The next meeting of our Advisory Council is later this week. For more information on Council activities, see these previous Feedback Loop posts:

• The Advisory Council’s Critical Roles, an overview of the types of input Council members provide to NIGMS
• “Did Council Fund My Grant?”, a discussion of the Advisory Council’s role in making funding decisions

You may be interested in this funding opportunity announcement from the NIH Common Fund: NIH Director’s Transformative Research Awards (R01) (RFA-RM-12-017) Purpose: Support groundbreaking, exceptionally innovative, original and/or unconventional research with the potential for major impact in a broad area of biomedical or behavioral science Letter of intent due date: August 21, 2012 Application due date: September 21, 2012 NIH contact: Ravi Basavappa, 301-435-7204

You may be interested in the following funding opportunities that were recently published in the NIH Guide: Collaborations with National Centers for Biomedical Computing (R01) (PAR-12-001) Purpose: Use computational tools and biological and behavioral application drivers of the funded National Centers for Biomedical Computing as a foundation for building a biomedical computing environment Application due date: Standard dates apply NIGMS contact: Peter Lyster, 301-451-6446 More info: National Centers for Biomedical Computing Web site (no longer available) Dynamics of Host-Associated Microbial Communities (R01) (RFA-GM-13-001) Purpose: Reveal basic principles and mechanisms that govern the symbiotic systems dynamics of host-associated microbial communities through genetic, physiological and ecological studies Letter of intent due date: December 13, 2011 Application due date: January 13, 2012 NIGMS contact: Shiva Singh, 301-594-3900 Short Courses on Mathematical, Statistical, and Computational Tools for Studying Biological Systems (R25) (PA-11-351) Purpose: Conduct workshops and short courses to improve integration of mathematical, statistical and computational approaches into biological and/or behavioral research Letter of intent due date: 30 days before application due date Application due date: Standard dates apply NIGMS contact: Irene Eckstrand, 301-594-0943

You may be interested in the following funding opportunities that were recently published in the NIH Guide:

NIH Director's Transformative Research Awards (R01)
(RFA-RM-11-006)

Purpose: Support exceptionally innovative, high-risk, unconventional research
Letter of intent due date: December 12, 2011
Application due date: January 12, 2012
NIGMS contact: Laurie Tompkins, 301-594-0943
NIH contact: Ravi Basavappa, 301-435-7204
More info: This is an NIH Common Fund program; it replaces the NIGMS EUREKA and the NIH Director’s Transformative Research Project (TR01) initiatives

Mechanistic Pathways Linking Psychosocial Stress and Behavior (R01)
(RFA-HL-12-037)

Purpose: Investigate basic psychological, social and environmental mechanisms and processes linking psychosocial stressors and behaviors that may ultimately impact biological function, health and disease
Letter of intent due date: November 19, 2011
Application due date: December 19, 2011
NIGMS contact: Stephen Marcus, 301-451-6446
NHLBI contact: Catherine Stoney, 301-435-6670
More info: Issued by the NIH Basic Behavioral and Social Sciences Opportunity Network (OppNet)

We’re trying something new! To keep you posted on funding opportunities, we’ll provide a digest of NIGMS-related announcements soon after they appear in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, typically every 1 to 2 weeks. (You also can subscribe to get a weekly list of all NIH Guide announcements.) Similarly, we plan to post monthly digests of relevant highlights from the NIH Office of Extramural Research blog. Here is the first digest of funding opportunities. Please let me know if you do or don’t like this format or if you have suggestions for ways to improve its usefulness to you.

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You may be interested in the following funding opportunities that were recently published in the NIH Guide: NIGMS Centers for HIV/AIDS-Related Structural Biology (P50) RFA-GM-12-003 Purpose: Structure determination and dynamic characterization of macromolecular complexes among and between components of HIV and the components of host cells Letter of intent due date: December 7, 2011 Application due date: January 6, 2012 NIGMS contact: Michael Sakalian, 301-594-0828 More info: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/SpecificAreas/ AIDSStructuralBiology/ Lab to Marketplace: Tools for Biomedical and Behavioral Research (SBIR [R43/R44]) PA-11-335 Purpose: Translation of technologies for biomedical or behavioral research from academic and other non-small business research sectors to the marketplace Application due date: Standard dates apply NIGMS contact: Scott Somers, 301-594-3827 More info: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/Mechanisms/Pages/SBIR.aspx Development of Novel and Emerging Technologies for the Accurate Detection and Diagnosis of Polymicrobial Infections in Biomedical Laboratory Animal Models (SBIR [R43/R44]), (STTR [R41/R42]) SBIR: PA-11-340; STTR: PA-11-341 Purpose: Rapid and sensitive detection of infectious agents as a key requirement for microbial identification in laboratory animal models Application due date: Standard dates apply NIGMS contact: Stefan Maas, 301-594-0943 More info: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/Mechanisms/Pages/SBIR.aspx, http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Research/Mechanisms/Pages/STTR.aspx

The Feedback Loop blog, with its 165 posts and 418 comments, has become an important tool for communicating with you. As the blog enters its third year, we will continue to use it to share news of NIGMS funding opportunities, meetings and activities, job openings and grant-related changes. But, as with any blog, we really want to generate posts that spark an open dialogue. Tell us what posts you want to read by e-mailing me, adding a comment here or using the “Suggest a Post” option near the top of the site. Is there a policy or process we can demystify, a trend we can explain or an area of funding we should highlight? You can propose any topic that might interest our broader NIGMS grantee and applicant audience. While you’re at it, you can also tell us what you don’t want to read about!

At today's National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council meeting, member Howard Garrison offered the following statement to Jeremy Berg on behalf of the entire Council: “In appreciation of your 7 years of leadership at NIGMS, the members of the Council express their profound gratitude to you for your distinguished service to science and the nation. We recognize your outstanding work in the pursuit of excellence in research and education, mentoring and advocacy for basic research. Your willingness to deal directly with challenging issues has earned you our respect and admiration. It has been a pleasure and an honor to work with you, and we will miss you. We wish you continued success in your new endeavors.”

We launched the Feedback Loop blog about six months ago. What do you think so far? You can e-mail me or share comments about our post topics, frequency, e-mail alerts, general usefulness, etc. I’d also like your thoughts on how we can create more opportunities for you to join the conversation by posting comments. This blog was our first foray into the new world of social media. Since then, we’ve launched a Twitter feed and Facebook page to inform the public about NIGMS-funded research advances and our science education materials. NIH is also on Twitter and Facebook with health-related material for the public as well as a separate Twitter feed for funding opportunities. If you have suggestions for additional ways we could use social or other media tools to keep you informed, please share them with me or on the Feedback Loop.

We’ve been posting lots of comments and replies to Feedback Loop entries, particularly ones about Recovery Act funding opportunities. So that you can automatically receive alerts when comments have been added, we’ve set up a special "Comments" RSS feed. To sign up or learn more about it, go to https://loop.nigms.nih.gov/index.php/comments/
feed/.

If you have questions about administrative supplement requests, be sure to skim the comments to "Tips for Requesting Recovery Act Administrative Supplements" and "Clearing Up Confusion about Supplement Length and Budget Limits" for information that may apply to you.