Limited Competition: National NeuroAIDS Tissue Consortium (NNTC) Data Coordinating Center (U24)

This Limited Competition Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) invites one application to continue the activities of the Data Coordinating Center (DCC) of the National NeuroAIDS Tissue Consortium as previously funded under RFA-MH-13-071. The DCC will function as part of the NNTC, a national resource that provides clinical data and biological specimens to NeuroAIDS investigators interested in conducting research toward a cure of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1) infection from the central nervous system (CNS), and research on the neuropathogenesis of HIV-1 induced CNS and peripheral nervous system (PNS) dysfunction in the context of anti-retroviral therapy (ART). The DCC works cooperatively with the NNTC-affiliated clinical sites to provide the following: 1) management and database capabilities to ensure effective clinical and brain banking operations, and to serve as the data repository for the NNTC; 2) scientific expertise in biostatistics and HIV-1 epidemiology to enable broad analyses of the NNTC clinical database, and to aid in statistical analysis of recruitment and retention goals for the clinical sites affiliated with the NNTC; and 3) expanding the capability to include coordinating the distribution of data and specimens stored at other national and international clinical sites to ensure that NeuroAIDS investigators have access to CNS and PNS resources that are difficult to obtain from HIV-1 infected individuals across the lifespan. The clinical sites affiliated with the NNTC will have all patient contact which will include all clinical assessments ante mortem. The clinical sites will also be responsible for the collection and housing of post mortem clinical specimens. The DCC will serve as a NeuroAIDS data repository which will include the clinical assessment data and data obtained post mortem including brain pathology reports, laboratory tests conducted on the collected specimens/fluids, a comprehensive inventory of those specimens housed at each clinical site, and research data, such as bioinformatics datasets. A limited competition application for the NNTC DCC is being sought under a separate but related companion FOA (RFA-MH-18-250)