Multi-Omics for Health and Disease - Disease Study Sites (U01 Clinical Trial Optional)

The goal of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to establish Disease Study Sites (DSS) that will be part of a collaborative initiative to advance the application of multi-omic technologies to study health and disease in diverse populations. Together with the Omics Production Centers (RFA-HG-22-009) and the Data Analysis and Coordination Center (RFA-HG-22-010), the Disease Study Sites will leverage clinical conditions where multi-omic approaches are expected to be most informative to: 1) explore the use of multi-omics, integrated with phenotypic and environmental exposure data, including social determinants of health (SDOH), to detect and assess molecular profiles associated with healthy and disease states; 2) develop generalizable data harmonization, integration, and analysis methods, as well as best practices and standards for the optimal application of multi-omics; and 3) create a multi-dimensional dataset that is available to the research community. Each DSS will be primarily responsible for proposing a study focused on a disease area for which integrative multi-omics could be used to define associations with healthy and disease states and to detect changes over time. Each DSS will utilize effective strategies to enroll and consent participants, collect phenotypic and environmental exposure data, collect samples and measures over time, and contribute to consortium-wide protocol development, data analysis, methods development, and the production of the multi-dimensional dataset. While this program may provide some insights into disease etiology, its primary goal is to validate and enhance generalizable multi-omic approaches to identify meaningful biological changes related to health and disease.