Scalable and Systematic Neurobiology of Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorder Risk Genes: Assay and Data Generation Centers (RM1 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Background
The Scalable and Systematic Neurobiology of Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Disorder Risk Genes (SSPsyGene) Consortium aims to systematically characterize the function of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorder (NPD) risk genes, across biological scales of organization, and make this resource available for broad use by the biomedical research community. The program leverages scalable technologies to functionally characterize ~100-250 null and other alleles from genes with an increased burden of mutations in NPDs. It also optimizes novel assays for cellular and physiological phenotypes, assesses the scale limitations of such methods for characterizing allelic series of patient variants across large numbers of risk genes, and develops and implements common data formats to enable data integration across the SSPsyGene Consortium.

Grant Details
The Assay and Data Generation Centers (ADGCs) will be responsible for developing and carrying out high and moderate-throughput assays to characterize the central nervous system (CNS) function of a set of NPD risk genes, selected by the SSPsyGene Consortium, using relevant experimental systems (e.g., cellular, ex vivo, model organism). The ADGCs will work in collaboration with the central Data Resource and Administrative Coordination Center (DRACC), to form the SSPsyGene Consortium. The ADGCs will optimize and implement novel scalable assays that assess cellular and physiological neural function, establish the scale limitations of existing and new methods, identify technical bottlenecks for assessing the impact of allelic series of patient variants, implement common data formats, examine the ability to use the data to address different kinds of neurobiological questions, contribute to consortium integration efforts, ensure comparability and reproducibility of methods, data metrics, quality standards, standardized allele and assay validations, actively contribute to the SSPsyGene Consortium by collaborating with other funded ADGCs and external scientific consultants in gene selection, data management and sharing policies, participate in consortium activities such as joint projects and analyses, share best practices within the consortium and with the external community.

Eligibility Requirements
Eligible applicants include higher education institutions, nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS status or without 501(c)(3) IRS status, for-profit organizations including small businesses, local governments, state governments, county governments, city or township governments, special district governments, Indian/Native American tribal governments (federally recognized), Indian/Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments), U.S. territory or possession entities such as independent school districts or public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities. Foreign institutions are not eligible to apply directly but non-domestic components of U.S. Organizations are eligible to apply.

Period of Performance
The project period is determined by the scope of the proposed project with a maximum duration of 5 years. The open date for submission is December 31st, 2023. The earliest start date is January 31st, 2024.

Grant Value
$5 million in total costs is intended to fund 2-4 awards in FY 2024.