New Approaches for Incorporating Genetic Diversity into Toxicity Testing (R43/R44 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) supports Phase I (R43), Phase II (R44), Direct to Phase II (R44), and Fast Track (R44) Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant applications from small businesses concerns (SBCs) to develop resources and approaches, including panels of cells or model organisms, that reflect the variability in human populations in chemical toxicity testing . Current toxicology testing is often limited to studies conducted in a small number of laboratory rodent strains, which can fail to identify clinically relevant toxicity if the conventional rodent strain is particularly resistant to the toxic effects of the test compound. Cost-effective screening systems with appropriate throughput are needed to better capture this variability in responses to chemical exposure in the population based on individual genetic susceptibility.