Prioritizing Molecular Targets for Cancer Prevention with Nutritional Combinations (R01) | Apply Online

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is this funding opportunity about?

This opportunity supports mechanistic research on how combinations of diet-derived bioactive components and whole foods influence cancer prevention. The emphasis is on understanding how multiple compounds within a food, or combinations of foods in a dietary pattern, interact with each other and with biological systems in ways that are more complex than studying a single nutrient or supplement on its own.

Which agency and institute offered this opportunity?

The opportunity was offered by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

What grant mechanism was used?

The primary mechanism of support was the NIH R01 research project grant.

Is there an option for smaller projects or limited preliminary data?

Yes. The announcement noted that investigators who lacked sufficient preliminary data could consider the NCI Cancer Prevention Research Small Grants Program using the R03 mechanism, which supports smaller, early-stage projects and has a broader scientific scope.

What is the central scientific idea behind the announcement?

The central idea is that foods do not act in isolation. Multiple dietary compounds and foods can interact with one another and with biological systems, producing effects that may be synergistic, additive, or antagonistic. The research was intended to move beyond "one-compound, one-target" thinking and instead examine realistic dietary exposures and their effects on networks of molecular and cellular events related to cancer development and progression.

What types of test agents or exposures were expected?

Projects had to focus on multiple dietary bioactive components, intact foods, and/or multiple foods. The intent was to study combinations that reflect real dietary patterns and complex food matrices, not isolated single agents alone.

What does "physiologically relevant concentrations" mean in this context?

It means the proposed test agents and dose ranges should reflect what can reasonably occur in the body through diet, digestion, absorption, and metabolism. The announcement emphasized avoiding extremely high concentrations that might only be relevant in a test tube and not achievable through diet.

What kinds of interactions among dietary components were of interest?

The announcement highlighted the "dynamic interrelationship" among food-derived compounds and cancer prevention, including how components may act together through synergy, additivity, or antagonism, and how these relationships can vary across time and biological context.

What research approaches were encouraged?

Modern high-throughput approaches were a major expectation, including genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. These tools were encouraged to capture broad, system-level responses to dietary mixtures rather than focusing only on a small set of predefined endpoints.

How were investigators expected to use high-throughput datasets?

The goal was not merely to generate large datasets, but to use them to map how dietary components perturb complex cellular networks and to identify which nodes or pathways appear most influential for cancer prevention.

What biological processes could be examined under this opportunity?

The announcement gave examples of cancer-related processes such as inflammation, DNA damage response, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and immune modulation. Applicants could examine multiple molecular targets within a single process or assess multiple cancer processes at the same time.

What was the key expected deliverable from funded projects?

The key deliverable was target and process prioritization: studies were expected to conclude with a reasoned, evidence-based ranking of the molecular targets, pathways, or biological processes most relevant to cancer prevention effects produced by dietary components or food combinations.

Why was target and process prioritization important?

The prioritization outcome was intended to help move the field from broad observations (for example, "food X is protective") toward actionable knowledge about what should be measured, validated, and potentially leveraged in future prevention strategies, biomarker development, or interventions.

What was the long-term vision described for this research area?

The long-term vision was to use mechanistic, systems-level information to design better dietary strategies that could reduce cancer risk and/or influence tumor behavior.

What is the Funding Opportunity Number for this announcement?

The Funding Opportunity Number listed for this discretionary grant was PA-07-100.

What activity areas were associated with the opportunity?

The opportunity was listed under the health and education activity areas.

What CFDA numbers were associated with the opportunity?

The announcement listed CFDA 93.393 (Cancer Cause and Prevention Research) and CFDA 93.396 (Cancer Biology Research).

Was cost sharing or matching required?

No. The opportunity did not require cost sharing or matching.

Who was eligible to apply?

Eligible applicants included public and private institutions of higher education, for-profit organizations (including small businesses and other for-profits), and nonprofit organizations (including those with and without 501(c)(3) status).

Were foreign institutions eligible to apply?

Yes. Foreign institutions were explicitly eligible to apply.

When was the announcement originally posted and when did it close?

The announcement was originally posted in December 2006. It used multiple receipt dates, with the final listed closing date in January 2010 and an archive date in February 2010.

What kind of projects fit best under an R01 in this announcement?

The R01 mechanism is generally used for hypothesis-driven, investigator-initiated projects with a substantial scope. In this announcement, that scope aligned with mechanistic, systems-level studies of dietary mixtures or whole foods using physiologically relevant exposures and modern high-throughput methods, concluding with target and process prioritization.