Calls for Proposal (Open for all Nations and Developing countries) with Society Integration Development_Deadline: Oct 25, 2008

SIDO (Society Integration Development) is a Non-Governmental Organization, working to help the poor regardless race, nations and religions through a variety of development programmes in collaboration with partners (NGOs, CBOs, Private sector, Media and Government offices) and other relevant institutions. It aims at operating through different 24 towns and provinces in Cambodia and overseas developing countries. By implementing its major component 2 (Sub-grant to partners), SIDO in Cambodia is currently seeking experienced and interested organizations submitting each topic good two pages-proposal application in specific fields of work which details are as below:

Application Form
New Challenges Explorations

Please enter proposal text in Sections I and II, according to the instructions within each section. If you choose to include charts, graphs, or references, add them within the appropriate section.

Your application must be no longer than 2 pages, using 11 point type. The entire file should be less than 2MB. Proposals that do not adhere to these restrictions may be blocked from submission and review.

Section I. What is your idea?
Use this section to briefly describe your idea. Make sure that your idea directly fits the topic; otherwise your proposal may be disqualified.

• Why is your idea an unconventional or creative approach to the problem outlined in the topic?
• Describe the scientific basis for your idea and why you expect it to succeed.

Section II. How will you test it?Use this section to briefly describe the project design and implementation plan.

• Describe your experimental plan, including any new technologies or tools to be developed.
• How will the work you describe be performed within the budget (USD$63,000) and time period (one year) allocated for the initial Phase I award?
• What essential data will you generate during your Phase I award?
• If your experiments in Phase I are successful, what are the next steps?

Note: Application is written only two pages maximum at 11 font size Arial. The initial fund is $ US 63,000 .00 as for one year as per one project. If the project shows in the way successful, a consideration adding funding of US $ 450,000.00 will be provided to each project after of its each project life.

The dateline is 25 October 2008 at 6:00 PM time in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Contact: email: david_sido@live.com or at (855)11 240 503

Each Organization is allowed to apply only two applications as maximum of a project proposal through each topic below:

1)TOPIC: Create New Drugs and Delivery Systems To Limit the Emergence of Resistance

Roadblock:

Antibiotics and anti-viral therapies have been the cornerstone of infectious disease treatment, control programs and elimination campaigns for many diseases. However, the effectiveness of existing treatments for our priority infectious diseases is increasingly compromised by the evolution of drug-resistant pathogens. We lack an understanding of the key determinants of the evolution of resistance, and the ability to slow the emergence of resistant variants. Most screening approaches in use today produce compounds that are likely to fail over time. Furthermore, combination therapies currently limit the emergence of resistance to antimicrobial agents, but even then resistance can emerge. While new drug discovery efforts may expand our arsenal of compounds, simply having more drugs does not address the potential emergence of resistance. We need new ways to create drugs that are less likely to be made ineffective by pathogen evolution, which would enhance the useful lifespan of anti-microbial agents, and reduce the frequency of treatment failures.

What We Are Looking For:

The goal of this topic is to explore new approaches that limit the emergence of resistance -- by limiting evolutionary pressure on drug targets, blocking potential evolutionary paths, or other novel mechanisms. In all cases, proposals must articulate how the emergence of drug resistance would be limited and how the likelihood for emergence of resistance could be tested. We seek proposals that are “off the beaten track,” significantly radical in conception, and daring in premise.

A few of the many options to be considered include:

• Novel mechanisms of action, for example targeting critical host components essential to infection and disease with little or no toxic effect on the host;
• Targeting components of the pathogen that are implicated in disease rather than infection, or that are so highly constrained that resistant variants cannot be easily selected;
• New formulations or delivery modalities that improve the in vivo pharmacological characteristics of drugs, where a specific biological rationale exists that these improvements can limit emergence of resistance;
• Altering the inherent capacity for pathogens to evade drug sensitivity;
• Mathematical analysis, modeling and prediction of the evolution, spread and fitness of resistant mutants during drug treatment, both within a single individual and within an epidemiological context. Explicit linkages to the discovery of new drugs must be made apparent.

For this initiative, we will not consider funding for:

• Identification of new targets or compounds with no biological rationale concerning the emergence of resistance or no clear means of evaluating whether the target, compound, or approach is likely to limit the emergence of resistance;
• Explorations of current hypotheses unless they involve the use of technologies that have not previously been used to study the disease or pathogen;
• Testing compounds against currently drug-resistant pathogens without a clear hypothesis as to why the resultant compound would be less likely to generate resistance;
• Specific targeting of pathogens that cause diseases not on the foundation’s priority disease list (e.g. MRSA);
• Community-based interventions aimed at improving adherence to drug treatment regimens;
• Use of combinations of existing agents without regard to new mechanisms of action or new drug administrations related to drug resistance.

2) TOPIC: Create New Ways to Protect Against Infectious Disease

Roadblock:

Vaccines have been a cornerstone of global health campaigns to provide protection against infectious diseases. However, discovery of new vaccines currently relies on a long and costly process of trial and error, and this approach has an uneven record of success. The proliferation of novel antigens, adjuvants, and formulations require new methods to more reliably select those entities that will elicit protective immune responses in humans.The global health community also needs new ways to protect against infectious diseases that do not resemble traditional vaccines, which currently are dependent upon the limitations of the human immune system. Such dependence places a fundamental restriction on the solutions developed against infectious diseases such as HIV, malaria, TB, diarrhea, and pneumonia. We need new ways of pushing past these obstacles to expand the range of health interventions that protect against infectious diseases.

What We Are Looking For:

The goal of this topic is to solicit generic approaches to identify effective antigens, novel methods, or agents to generate an immune response. Unconventional approaches to effectively harness the immune response, create an artificial immune response, block pathogen transmission, or shift the underlying epidemiology to protect against infection and disease are also solicited. We seek proposals “off the beaten track,” significantly radical in conception, and daring in premise.

Note: Specific vaccine concepts for diarrhea, HIV, malaria, pneumonia, and TB should be submitted under “Create New Vaccines for Diarrhea, HIV, Malaria, Pneumonia, and TB.”

A few of the many options to be considered include:

• Reliable generic approaches to the design and selection of antigens and adjuvants, including the understanding of the molecular mechanisms by which adjuvants stimulate the immune system;
• Alternative approaches to effective presentation of antigens and other key stimulating factors;
• New computational or laboratory-based systems for rapidly testing vaccines and predicting their efficacy;
• Applications of radically new technologies for disease protection, such as production of immunogens using synthetic biology or radical genetic engineering approaches;
• Novel technologies or approaches to generate immunity at the population level;
• Novel therapeutics or immunomodulators with an explicit linkage to and clear hypothesis of a specific mechanism for protecting against infectious diseases;
• Approaches to disrupt disease transmission or change disease epidemiology based on the generation of protection against infectious diseases.

For this topic, we will not consider funding for:

• Proposals focused on a disease outside the priorities;
• Proposals that aim to identify novel therapeutics that do not articulate a clear hypothesis of a specific mechanism for protecting against infectious diseases on an individual or population level;
• Proposals that aim to identify nutritional interventions that do not articulate clear hypothesis of a specific mechanism for protecting against infectious diseases on an individual or population level;
• Proposals that employ current methods for vaccine discovery, development, or delivery;
• Proposals focusing on molecular pathways targeted by currently available adjuvants or adjuvants currently in clinical development.

3) TOPIC: Create New Ways to Prevent or Cure HIV Infection

Roadblock: The HIV epidemic is taking an enormous toll in the lives of millions of people, particularly in the developing world. Developing more effective and efficient HIV prevention methods is an urgent priority. Current prevention methods, including behavior change and promotion of the use of condoms or circumcision, are only partially effective. Cellular or antibody-based approaches for traditional HIV vaccines have not yet yielded measures of efficacy for either prevention or therapy.While antiretroviral drugs have been successful in expanding treatment to patients worldwide, current therapies do not clear the infection and so require life-long treatment to prevent the infection from progressing to more advanced forms of disease. New methods need to be discovered that can permanently eliminate infection, even in cases where effects of the virus are being controlled with current drugs.

What We Are Looking For:

The goal of this topic is to solicit new approaches to preventing or curing HIV infection. There are many points in the replication or infection cycle of the virus that might be points of effective intervention, such as: blocking the virus from entering or replicating in host cells, suppressing the production of new viable virus, eliminating infected cells, or blocking transmission between individuals. New ideas that represent alternatives to existing prevention and treatment methods and investigational approaches are needed. Similarly, we also seek novel approaches to completely eliminate the virus in infected individuals. We seek proposals “off the beaten track,” significantly radical in conception, and daring in premise.

A few of the many options to be considered include:

• New hypotheses regarding the mechanisms by which HIV causes persistent infection or disease that are explicitly linked to prevention or curative strategies;
• New approaches to modulating or enhancing the human humoral or cellular immune system, including the innate immune system, or approaches for an artificial adjunct to the immune system;
• Novel approaches and interventions that require multi-disciplinary or multi-system methods;
• Novel ways to model or track infection that are explicitly linked to prevention or cure;
• Interventions that might be administered systemically or locally that interfere with the virus at the point of infection or limit the effects of viral infection;
• Approaches that render the virus harmless to humans either before or during infection;
• New approaches that alter viral mutation so that the natural or induced immune response can succeed;
• New approaches based on a clear biological rationale that employ multiple interventions in combination for improved performance;
• New methods to determine the reservoir of virus in the infected host, including whether this is the viral archive in the host genome or low-level replication of active virus;
• New hypotheses about the relationship between HIV and co-infecting or endogenous pathogens, that offer explicit consequences for preventive or curative interventions.

For this topic, we will not consider funding for:

• Testing of novel compounds or immunological interventions without a clear hypothesis as to their effect on prevention or cure of HIV infection;
• Common approaches that are incremental advances to the field;
• Approaches based on behavior modification, or promotion of the use of condoms or circumcision;
• Approaches using microbicides currently under development or those designed with currently available anti-retroviral compounds;
• New projects on antiretroviral compounds that suppress infection, without eliminating infection, by targeting the virus or viral factors;
• Approaches to compound discovery that are not based on knowledge of the intended mechanism of action;
• Concepts previously or currently under clinical investigation.

4) TOPIC: Explore the Basis for Latency In Tuberculosis

Roadblock:

One-third of the world’s population is estimated to be infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However most individuals do not show clinical symptoms of disease, a form of infection that is commonly known as latency. Latent TB represents a vast reservoir from which active disease and subsequent transmission propagates. Interventions that identify and eliminate latent infection might break the cycle of disease transmission and reverse the TB epidemic. Current approaches to detection, prevention, and treatment of latent infection are inadequate, and rational development of new tools has been limited by poor understanding of the fundamental biology of latent TB infection.

The scientific community has described the fundamental biology of latency in a number of ways, yet all are incomplete in some way. For example:

1. Latent TB can be defined by the presence of T cells that respond to specific TB antigens. However, this definition may include individuals who have eliminated the pathogen in addition to those who continue to harbor viable bacteria. With current tests there is no reliable way to distinguish these different possibilities. Some individuals may be capable of eliminating infection or may be able to prevent reactivation of TB. An understanding of the immune and other containment mechanisms employed by the host, or the specific host genetic background that is resistant to establishment of a latent infection, could suggest novel approaches to intervention.
2. A body of evidence suggests that latent M. tuberculosis is contained within well-structured granulomas in the lungs of infected individuals, but there remains the possibility that other reservoirs exist. There is no means to detect and localize very small numbers of individual bacteria in a person harboring latent infection. Highly sensitive tools could allow this reservoir to be monitored to identify host factors critical for maintenance of the latent state, and determine the effect of novel treatments aimed at eliminating the pathogen.
3. Following infection, M. tuberculosis may adapt in specific ways when it encounters a particular environment or environmental signal that leads it to enter the latent state. Different forms of the organism have been described, but there is little evidence for a specific state that correlates with long-term survival, or propensity to reactivate in humans. Most studies have been conducted in vitro or in animal models. There also exists the possibility that infection with certain strains of M. tuberculosis is more likely to lead to a latent infection.
4. Few models exist in which we can model true latent M. tuberculosis infection. In the most commonly used system, the mouse, latency must be induced by the use of drug therapy. Alternative approaches to, and validation of, models that closely mimic human latent infection are needed.

What We Are Looking For:

The goal of this topic is to stimulate new approaches to the study of the phenomenon of latent TB infection. We seek proposals that are “off the beaten track,” significantly radical in conception, and daring in premise.

A few of the many options to be considered include:

• New approaches to distinguish different forms of latent TB and identify groups at greatest risk of disease reactivation;
• New hypotheses about the underlying molecular mechanisms and other biological processes that enable M. tuberculosis to enter, maintain, and exit from the latent state, including the use of genome-wide manipulations to identify bacterial or host genes involved in these processes;
• Methods used to study the latent phase of other infectious agents or the factors influencing eukaryotic cell quiescence that may be applicable to the study of TB latency;
• New chemical or immunological methods to prevent entry, maintenance, and/or exit from latency;
• New methods to locate and quantify latent bacilli using biophotonics and bioimaging systems;
• Comparison latent TB to analogous biological situations such as stable coexistence of commensal microbes or granuloma formation in cancer;
• Formulation and testing of models of latent TB that include periodic cycling between phases of bacterial replication and dormancy;
• The articulation and initial testing of new hypotheses,; application of approaches employed successfully to study latency or quiescence in other systems,; or the application of new methods or tools, which open new lines of inquiry or interventions not previously possible.

For this topic, we will not consider funding for:

• Explorations of active disease that are not clearly and uniquely relevant to latent TB
• Explorations of drug-induced persistence;
• Explorations of current hypotheses (for example, that M. tuberculosis latency is an adaptation to hypoxic conditions in closed lesions), unless these involve the use of substantially novel technologies that have not previously been used to study TB;
• Explorations of novel biological mechanisms of active disease or actively-growing M. tuberculosis cells that fail to establish a definite link to latency;
• New drug, vaccine, or diagnostic discovery research that does not offer a significantly innovative approach to addressing the phenomenon of latency.

5) TOPIC: Create New Tools to Accelerate the Eradication of Malaria

Roadblock:

Thanks to recent progress against malaria, the global eradication of the disease has emerged as a feasible long-term goal. However, eradicating malaria will require innovative new tools and approaches to stop transmission of malaria from human and mosquito reservoirs.

What We Are Looking For:

The goal of this topic is to discover novel malaria interventions for use in future global eradication efforts. These interventions would add to traditional strategies that are already in use (e.g., bed nets) or in development (e.g., vaccines). We seek proposals that are “off the beaten track,” significantly radical in conception, and daring in premise.

A few of the many options to be considered include:

• New interventions designed to target human and vector populations that are hardest to reach;
• New interventions that will be valued and used by individuals and communities even after malaria rates fall and the perceived threat of the disease is low;
• New tools and technologies for monitoring and surveillance of the pathogen, including methods to detect latent and subclinical infection in both human and non-human reservoirs and vectors;
• New tools and approaches for reducing malaria transmission, especially from low levels to zero;
• New strategies to apply interventions to populations, such as those considering the underlying heterogeneity of human, mosquito, and parasite populations in space and time.

For this initiative, we will not consider funding for:

• Efforts to discover traditional vaccine candidates for use in humans;
• Theoretical epidemiology without an explicit hypothesis about preventing or interrupting transmission or a concurrent testing of a new intervention;
• Application of existing interventions without testing significantly novel approaches to improving access or delivery;
• New drug candidates, targets, or formulations, unless they involve new chemical entities or novel approaches that offer a clear rationale for outperforming existing or emerging therapies;
• Testing of existing vector control methods, pesticide targets, or the discovery of new active ingredients for traditional pesticide use.

6) TOPIC: Create New Vaccines for Diarrhea, HIV, Malaria, Pneumonia, and Tuberculosis

Roadblock:

The discovery of new vaccines for diarrhea, HIV, malaria, pneumonia, and TB has historically relied on a long and costly process of trial and error, and has an uneven record of success. In traditional approaches, antigens are combined with adjuvants and formulated to stimulate the desired immune response.

These candidates must undergo animal studies and large human efficacy trials in target populations to assess their potential. The ability to identify the best combination of antigen, adjuvant, and formulation early in the process, before more expensive and time-consuming clinical studies, is critical for progress.The increased application of genomics, proteomics, biophysical analysis, sophisticated cell-based assays, and bioinformatics tools could provide new opportunities for the investigation of candidate vaccines. In addition, improved paradigms for rational vaccine design are needed. Multidisciplinary approaches may facilitate the identification of safe and broadly efficacious new vaccines.

What We Are Looking For:

The goal of this topic is to generate novel untried vaccine leads for diarrhea, HIV, malaria, pneumonia, and TB. We seek proposals that are “off the beaten track,” daring in premise, and clearly different from the approaches currently being developed or employed.

Note: Generic vaccine technology platforms that are not specific to a single disease should be submitted under “Create New Ways to Protect Against Infectious Disease.”

A few of the many options to be considered include:

• Novel vaccine targets and constructs inspired by new observations or understanding about the nature of the targeted organism or the human response to that organism;
• Approaches to present antigens that take into consideration their immunologically relevant conformations;
• Approaches to enhance immunity through induction of biophysical changes in target cell membranes;
• New vaccine constructs that target specific tissue or cell types for appropriate induction of local and systemic immunity;
• Novel vaccines designed specifically for populations with high disease burden or risk of infection.

For this topic, we will not consider funding for:

• Proposals that do not address diarrhea, HIV, malaria, pneumonia, or TB (for a listing of the priority pathogens within these disease areas,
• Vaccine candidates currently under development or in clinical investigation;
• Vaccine concepts not based on an explicit hypothesis or rationale for improved performance over those candidates currently in development;
• Vaccine candidates for pandemic and seasonal influenza