Advancing Therapeutics A – ATA

Topics

• Evaluation of gene and drug-delivery strategies (nonimmunological), including reformulation/combination of existing drugs or formulation development of evidence based new drugs
• Advanced preclinical drug toxicity and PK/PD studies in small, medium, large, patient-derived xenograft, or transgenic animal models, or human specimens for validation.
• Late-stage diversification and optimization of small molecule anti-cancer agents.
• Development of therapeutic strategies and rational combinations of cytotoxic drugs with novel agents including those targeting: growth factors, signaling, cell cycle regulation, angiogenic, and differentiation pathways.
• Early-stage, pilot clinical trials of novel anticancer therapeutic and drug-delivery strategies involving pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, toxicologic, or pharmacogenomic endpoints.
• Development and application of mathematical and computational methods for the investigation of therapeutic strategies.

Shared Interests and Overlaps

There are shared interests in drug development with Drug Discovery and Molecular Pharmacology C (DMPC).   Applications that emphasize late-stage drug development efforts are reviewed in ATA. Applications focused on early stages of drug discovery involving synthesis, validation/optimization of new anti-cancer therapeutic agents and in vivo evaluation of new drugs are reviewed in DMPC.

There are shared interests in nanotechnology related to nanomaterials for drug delivery with Innovations in Nanosystems and Nanotechnology (INN) study section. Applications that emphasize therapeutic efficacy or focus on the development therapeutic strategies as the endpoint are reviewed in ATA. Applications that focus on the disposition and toxicity of drugs, including mechanistic pathways involved in drug toxicity, are reviewed in INN.  

There are shared interests in therapeutic bioavailability, toxicity, and efficacy with Drug and Biologic Disposition and Toxicity (DBDT) Study Section. Applications that focus on preclinical and pilot clinical studies on bioavailability, toxicity, and efficacy of cancer therapeutic agents are reviewed in ATA. Applications that focus primarily on drug or biologic bioavailability, biotransformation, and/or toxicity are reviewed in DBDT.

There are shared interests in the area of Gene and drug-delivery strategies with Drug and Biologic Therapeutic Delivery (DBTD). Applications that focus efficacy, safety, or toxicity in animal models or pilot clinical trials are reviewed in ATA. Applications that focus on foundational technological advancements or are focused on bioengineering principles are reviewed in DBTD.

There are shared interests in nucleic-acid based drug development with BBBT (81).  Applications that emphasize late-stage drug development and advanced efficacy/safety studies are reviewed in ATA. Applications that emphasize disease-agnostic development of nucleic acid therapeutics are reviewed in BBBT (81).  

There are shared interests on therapeutic strategies involving combinations of cytotoxic drugs with targeting agents with Mechanisms of Cancer Therapeutics-C (MCTC). Applications that focus on advanced animal experiments and pilot clinical trials may be reviewed in ATA. Applications that focus on mechanism of action of novel therapeutic combination strategies that include efficacy studies may be reviewed in MCTC.

There are shared interests on therapeutic strategies involving combinations of cytotoxic drugs with targeting agents with Mechanisms of Cancer Therapeutics-B (MCTB). Applications that focus on advanced animal experiments and pilot clinical trials may be reviewed in ATA. Applications that focus on mechanism of action of combination therapies and the effects of drug combination on key oncogenic signaling processes may be reviewed in MCTB.

There are shared interests in the therapeutic evaluation of the anti-cancer drug effect with Mechanisms of Cancer Therapeutics-A (MCTA). Applications that focus on the pre-clinical development and evaluation of novel anti-cancer therapeutics and rational combinations of cytotoxic drugs with novel agents may be reviewed in ATA. Applications that focus on the mechanism of action of novel anticancer agents and the impact of drug properties on anti-cancer drug function may be reviewed in MCTA.

There are shared interests in drug efficacies and toxicities with Molecular Cancer Diagnosis and Combination (MCDC). Applications that focus on translational studies of novel/established antineoplastic agents and pre-clinical drug toxicity, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic studies of anticancer agents may be reviewed in ATA. Applications that focus on the development of markers of responses and toxicity of established therapeutic agents are reviewed in MCDC. 

There are shared interests in the areas of oncolytic virotherapy and chemoimmunotherapy with Translational Immuno-oncology (TIO). Applications that are more focused on the non-immunological aspects such as gene therapy are reviewed in ATA.  Applications that focus on the immunological aspects of virotherapy are reviewed in TIO.

There are shared interests in early-stage, pilot clinical trials with Clinical Oncology (CONC). Applications that focus on the experimental therapy of neoplastic diseases in in vitro systems and in vivo model systems, including some pilot clinical trials are reviewed in ATA. Applications that focus on clinical trials with targeted therapy of small molecular inhibitors are reviewed in CONC.  

There are shared interests in the areas of mathematical and computer modelling with Modeling and Analysis of Biological Systems (MABS). Applications which seek to apply the modeling for investigation of combination chemotherapy using small molecules and other modalities for cancer therapy are reviewed in ATA. Applications which focus on the early development of the modeling are reviewed in MABS.