Identification and Characterization of Molecular Targets Within the mTOR Pathway With Potential to Impact Healthspan and Lifespan (R21) | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

The NIH Funding Opportunity Announcement PA 10-164, titled "Identification and Characterization of Molecular Targets Within the mTOR Pathway With Potential to Impact Healthspan and Lifespan (R21)," is a discretionary grant program designed to stimulate early-stage, high-impact research on the mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) signaling network. The central idea is to push forward exploratory projects that can uncover actionable molecular targets in the mTOR pathway or identify external modulators of mTOR activity, with the longer-term goal of improving human health outcomes tied to aging and cancer prevention. The opportunity is jointly aligned with two NIH institutes: the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), each emphasizing a slightly different, but related, set of scientific outcomes.

From the NIA perspective, the FOA prioritizes studies that identify novel molecular targets within the mTOR signaling network where intervention could plausibly extend healthspan, meaning the period of life spent in good health, functional independence, and lower burden of chronic disease. Rather than focusing only on lifespan extension as a number, the emphasis is on healthy aging outcomes in older organisms, such as preserved metabolic function, resilience to stress, improved tissue maintenance, and delay of age-associated pathologies. Applications are expected to propose credible strategies to discover or validate new nodes of control in the mTOR network, and to show how manipulating those nodes could translate into healthier aging phenotypes.

From the NCI perspective, the FOA encourages projects that identify and characterize dietary constituents that modulate the mTOR pathway in ways that support cancer prevention. This includes work aimed at pinpointing specific compounds, nutrients, or dietary-derived bioactives that influence mTOR signaling and then connecting those effects to mechanisms relevant to tumor initiation, promotion, or progression. The intent is not simply to catalog dietary factors, but to link dietary modulation of mTOR to biologically meaningful preventive mechanisms, ideally supported by mechanistic assays and models appropriate for cancer prevention research.

The announcement is deliberately broad about how applicants can pursue these goals. It explicitly supports a wide range of research approaches for both identifying targets and characterizing how they function. That can include medicinal chemistry efforts to generate or refine small molecules that interact with candidate targets, in vitro assays to probe pathway regulation and downstream effects, and experimental work in lower organisms (often used in aging biology because of speed and genetic tractability) or mammalian models where translational relevance can be tested. In practice, this flexibility is meant to encourage creative, early discovery work, including projects that may not yet be ready for a large, multi-year, fully developed research plan but have strong rationale and a clear path to generating decisive preliminary data.

The mechanism of support is the NIH Exploratory/Developmental Grant (R21), which is typically used for innovative, higher-risk concepts that need initial evidence before they can mature into larger projects. Consistent with the R21 structure, the FOA sets an award ceiling of $200,000 (as listed in the source data), and it notes that the size and duration of individual awards may vary depending on the scope and needs of the proposed research. Importantly, the FOA does not promise a fixed number of awards or a fixed total funding amount; instead, it states that the total number and value of awards will depend on factors such as the number of applications submitted, their quality, their proposed duration, and their requested budgets.

Eligibility is expansive and includes a broad mix of institutions and organizations. Eligible applicants include state, county, city/township, and special district governments; public and private institutions of higher education; nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education in those categories where specified); for-profit organizations other than small businesses as well as small businesses; public housing authorities and Indian housing authorities; and tribal organizations, including federally recognized tribal governments and other tribal entities. The FOA also explicitly includes a wide set of additional eligible applicants such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-serving Institutions, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), U.S. territories or possessions, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, and non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations). The opportunity does not require cost sharing or matching funds, which lowers barriers for early-stage or exploratory teams.

Administratively, the opportunity was posted and created on April 9, 2010, with an original and current closing date listed as May 17, 2013, and an archive date of June 17, 2013. The funding instrument is a grant, and the activity categories align with health and education-related research. The program is indexed under CFDA 93.866 (Aging Research) and 93.393 (Cancer Cause and Prevention Research), reflecting the two-institute focus on aging/healthspan and cancer prevention through mTOR-related biology. For applicants or readers who needed the complete announcement text during the active period, NIH provided an official link through the NIH grants guide, and technical access issues were routed to the NIH Office of Extramural Research (OER) webmaster contact.

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