Assay development and screening for discovery of chemical probes, drugs or immunomodulators (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

About this funding opportunity

Through this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) solicits applications for identification of small molecules that function to elucidate the biology of disease as chemical probes or function as agonists or antagonists of disease target(s) for therapy or immunotherapy. The NOFO is intended to support discovery research for the identification of validated hits relevant to health-related outcomes of participating NIH Institutes. Stages of discovery research covered by this NOFO include: 1) assay development for specific biological targets and disease mechanisms relevant to the mission of participating NIH Institutes with the intent to screen for small molecule compounds that show potential as probes for use in advancing knowledge about the known targets, identifying new targets, or as pre-therapeutic leads; 2) screen implementation high throughput target-focused approaches or moderate throughput phenotypic- and fragment-based approaches to identify initial screening hits; 3) hit validation, including implementation of secondary assays that are orthogonal to the primary assay, advanced cheminformatics analysis and initial medicinal chemistry inspection to prioritize the hit set, and follow-up assays to characterize mode and mechanism of action of the validated hits; 4) hit-to-lead optimization, including SAR to optimize target engagement, selectivity and to minimize chemical liabilities, ADME, PK and PD studies, and, if appropriate, in vivo modeling to test efficacy or biological effects.

Topic areas: Education and Training, Life Sciences and Health.

Funding amount

This grant provides Varies in funding.

Deadline

Applications are due Sep 07, 2026. Confirm the exact closing time on the official program page before applying.

Who can apply

This opportunity is open to the following applicant types:

• Public Authorities
• SME
• Other
• NGOs
• University
• Large Company

Eligibility

Other Eligible Applicants include the following: Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions; Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISISs); Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government; Faith-based or Community-based Organizations; Hispanic-serving Institutions; Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized); Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Organizations); Regional Organizations; Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs); U.S. Territory or Possession.

Agency

Assay development and screening for discovery of chemical probes, drugs or immunomodulators (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed) is administered by National Institutes of Health (NIH), listed via Grants.gov.