Human Immunology Project Consortium (U19 Clinical Trial Optional)

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for the Human Immunology Project Consortium (HIPC) solicits applications from single institutions, or consortia of institutions, to participate in a network of human immunology profiling research groups in the area of infectious diseases, including HIV. The purpose of this FOA is to characterize human immune responses/mechanisms elicited by vaccinations, vaccine adjuvants or natural infections by capitalizing on recent advances in immune profiling technologies. Studies supported under this FOA will measure the diversity and commonalities of human immune responses under a variety of conditions and longitudinally using high-throughput systems immunology approaches coupled with detailed clinical phenotyping in well-characterized human cohorts. The resulting data will be used to develop molecular signatures that define immune response profiles and identify biomarkers that correlate with the outcomes of vaccinations, vaccine adjuvants or natural infections in humans. An additional goal of this program is to promote rapid public access to HIPC-supported data and meta-data through public portals such as ImmPort. A companion FOA will support development and operation of a HIPC Coordinating Center that will be responsible for fostering collaborations amongst HIPC-funded investigators; facilitating public dissemination of integrated HIPC findings and knowledge; and supporting development or adoption of new, robust methods for data integration, analysis, presentation, and visualization to further research and development in this field.