Latest News

NIH plans to commit at least $80M in 2010 to “bold and highly new innovative research approaches”
The NIH Director’s New Innovator (DP2) Award program aims to support early stage investigators to propose bold and highly innovative new research approaches that have the potential to produce a major impact on broad, important problems in biomedical and behavioral research. More information can be found here

OBBR Highlighted in Time Magazine's “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now: What's Next 2009”
The National Cancer Institute's Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research is leading an effort to build the U.S.'s first national biobanking resource. A Time Magazine article recently discussed this effort, naming it one of the "10 ideas changing the world right now." As a formal part of the OBBR, the IMAT program possesses funding opportunities in biospecimen science aimed at supporting this important effort. Read the entire article here .

 

IMAT Investigator / Technology Wins 2008 “Innovation of the Year” Award
James Landers , a professor of chemistry and mechanical engineering and an associate professor of pathology at the University of Virginia , was recently recognized with the 2008 Innovation Award from the Association for Laboratory Automation ( ALA ) for his novel Microfluidic Genetic Analysis (MGA) technology. Landers' unique device resembles a common microscope slide, but it houses the analytical tools of an entire laboratory.  Vastly complex and distinct procedures take place within millimeters of one another in tiny troughs that are etched into the chip.  Minute tissue or blood samples are placed into the chip and electric charge is applied to the samples—for electrophoresis—to separate out particular sections of DNA based on what type of diagnosis is needed.  Once the DNA is separated, it is replicated on one portion of the chip and then pushed to yet another area to be screened for irregularities.  This lab-on-a-chip technology may enable rapid detection of cancer and infectious diseases, and at a fraction of the cost of current tests. [read more]

 

Two IMAT Technologies Featured in 2 Separate Issues of Science
Two IMAT technologies were recently featured in the journal Science. A handheld, ultra-portable device that can recognize and immediately report on a wide variety of environmental or medical compounds may eventually be possible using a method that incorporates a mixture of biologically tagged nanowires onto integrated circuit chips, according to one article written and published in the January 2009 issue of Science by researchers at the Pennsylvania State University [read more]

In a similar feature, two-time IMAT grantee David Beebe, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin , was interviewed for his work on microfluidics in the November 2008 issue of Science. The article, entitled “Microfluidics: Bringing New Things to Life Science” can be found here.

 

IMAT Technology Featured in Nature Nanotechnology
The work of Dr Shanna O Kelley, an international IMAT grantee from the University of Toronto , was recently featured in an article published in the journal, Nature Nanotechnology . The work focused on the development of a single designer ligand—a chimeric DNA molecule—capable of controllably programming both the growth and the biofunctionalization of nanocrystals. Development of this novel technology saves both time- and labor-intensive processes and places the use of luminescent nanocrystals as customized lumiphores within reach for many researchers [read more]

 

USPTO Approves 8 new patents on IMAT technologies in 2007-2008
IMAT program investigators successfully secured the approval of 8 additional new patents for novel technologies in calendar year 2007 through 2008 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). These newly approved patents bring the total number of patent-related IMAT technologies that cite a specific IMAT award number to approximately 110.

 

2009 IMAT RFAs Released
The 2009 IMAT Request for Applications (RFAs) have been synthesized and released. Application receipt dates for the 2009 RFAs are as follows: 2/23/09, 5/27/09, and 9/30/09. Please see the NIH Guide or the Funding Opportunities section of this website for more information and links to each of the IMAT program's solicitations.

 

IMAT Announces New Affiliated Funding Opportunity Announcement in Biospecimen Integrity and Variability (2008)
As a part of the Biospecimen Research Network of the Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research (OBBR), the IMAT program is pleased to announce the issuance of a new funding opportunity announcement directed at examining the variables associated with human biospecimen integrity: more

 

IMAT Receives 5-Year Reauthorization (2007)
The IMAT program is pleased to announce the renewal of this highly successful and competitive technology development initiative. The program has received approval from both the Executive Committee of the National Cancer Institute as well as its Board of Scientific Advisors for a 5-year continuation of the program and its related funding opportunities. Pursuant to the program's reissuance, new funding opportunities and funding opportunity announcements are currently being planned and synthesized. Additional details will be posted as they become available and all applicants or potential applicants are encouraged to check back soon for details.