US Dept of Defense – Tick-Borne Disease Research Program

Therapeutic/Diagnostic Research Award  – HT9425-TBDRP-TDRA

• up to USD$825,000 over 3 years or USD$495,000 over 3 years for Career Development Option
• pre-proposals due 25 May 2023
• Career Development Option – within 10 years of completing PhD
• Supports hypothesis-driven therapeutic and diagnostic development research aimed at reducing the burden of Lyme disease and/or other TBDs and conditions and improving patient care and/or quality of life.
  – Treatment-focused applications should be therapeutic evaluation studies designed to promote new ideas aimed at drug or treatment discovery that are still in the early/preclinical stages of development.
  – Diagnosis-focused applications should propose diagnostic approaches that will be readily integrated into clinical settings
• proposals must address Treatment and Diagnosis Focus Areas
• preliminary data required unless submitting under Career Development Option
• clinical trials not allowed
• human studies/clinical research permitted

2023 Prevention and Pathogenesis Focus Areas

• Drugs and/or prophylactic antibodies, or other novel non-vaccine approaches that can be utilized prophylactically to prevent human tick-borne diseases
• Identification, validation, and/or improvement of tick- or reservoir-targeted prevention and control interventions that are safe and non-toxic to non-target species
• The interaction among tick-borne pathogens in ticks and/or mammals, and consequences on pathogen synergy and competition, the local and systemic immune response, or disease severity, with an emphasis on Lyme disease and its associated co-infections
• Mammalian immune evasion, host tolerance, or pathogen-host immunosuppression associated with Lyme disease and/or other tick-borne infections
• Persistent clinical manifestations associated with Lyme disease, with studies providing insight into neurologic symptoms particularly encouraged
• Understanding the role of tick-borne diseases on maternal health and pregnancy outcomes or the long-term impact on children with maternal-to-fetal transmission of tick-borne infections

2023 Treatment and Diagnosis Focus Areas

• Novel preclinical therapeutic strategies for tick-borne diseases, with priority given to Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases endemic to the U.S. that have a documented need for additional therapeutic options
• Pre-clinical evaluation of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved or -cleared drugs to support additional intended use(s) in the treatment of tick-borne diseases
• Innovative approaches that provide diagnosis for a single or for multiple tick-borne pathogens in human samples, with priority given to direct detection assays
• Novel diagnostics capable of distinguishing active Lyme disease infection from previous exposure
• Approaches focused on the detection/diagnosis of maternal-to-fetal transmission of Lyme disease and/or other tick-borne infections, including the development of relevant animal models

Supporting documents for download