The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s medical research agency — making important discoveries that improve health and save lives.
The grant program by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) focuses on encouraging research into the development, characterization, and reproducibility/reliability of human auditory and vestibular organoids. It aims to support innovative, reproducible, and novel methodologies and technologies that will enhance the longevity and utility of hearing/balance sensory organoids as model systems. Proposals are invited that focus on advancing the understanding and capabilities of organoid systems, particularly through the development of novel tools for gene, protein, molecule, and synthetic delivery to support organoid expansion and survivability. The initiative is also interested in research that can overcome current barriers to improve reproducibility and stability, with a significant emphasis on projects that present groundbreaking approaches and technologies in the context of human auditory/vestibular organoids. Comparative or integrated companion studies with human organoids are required for projects investigating animal organoids.