This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is aimed at enhancing nanoscience and nanotechnology research approaches that have the potential to make valuable contributions to biology and medicine. The purpose of this initiative is to stimulate cross-cutting, integrative research in these fields of science and technology. In particular, this initiative invites research on: i) the creation and use of structures, devices and systems that have novel properties and functions because of their small size, that may be used to achieve a fundamental understanding of biological processes and /or contribute to disease detection, therapy, or prevention; ii) conception and fabrication of devices, that will effectively detect and analyze nanoscale entities of relevance to biomedicine; and iii) the study of biological systems at the nanoscale for the explicit purpose of using that information to develop nanotechnologies and nanostructured materials that will in turn benefit biology and medicine. The research projects that will be most responsive to this FOA will require interdisciplinary collaborations among investigators with expertise in a range of disciplines, including but not limited to engineering, physics, chemistry, cellular and molecular biology, materials and computer science. Applications submitted in response to this PA may propose hypothesis-driven, discovery-driven, developmental, or design-directed research.

See full description in NIH Guide: PAR-06-475