Funding will be supplied for innovative, application-oriented projects of interdisciplinary research networks which aim to generate a significant scientific advancement in understanding toxicological processes in the human body. The goal is, in accordance with the EU REACH Regulation, to use established methods to determine in parallel the effect of chemical substances on transcriptome, relevant proteome, metabolome and, in the case of mutagenicity, on the genome. One focus of the functional analysis of integrated data is to be placed on metabolism. The starting point of the requested projects is human cell lines or in vitro models of human tissue.

As part of the projects, molecular effects of toxicity will be investigated and serve as the basis for the targeted development of toxicity tests that can replace animal experiments in the future. For this purpose, the systems biology research approach consisting of an iterative cycle between experiments and predictive mathematical modelling is to be used. An appropriate selection of parameters for the toxicological experiments shall enable a validation of the obtained results, if necessary by using existing reference data.

The projects are intended to serve as the scientific basis for a subsequent translation phase, in which the findings of the pilot phase are to be expanded on. The submission of innovative project ideas is expected, pursuing the goal to link omics data from toxicological in vitro experiments with bioinformatics and systems biology methods in such a way as to recognise the toxic effect of chemicals at the molecular level. It is intended that toxicologists, molecular biologists, bioinformaticians, and representatives of other disciplines make a joint effort to achieve this objective in interdisciplinary research approaches.

Applications may be submitted by commercial companies, universities and extramural research institutions based in Germany. The participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is expressly desired.

Funds will be awarded in the form of project funding as non-repayable grants.

The entries can be submitted via the Internet portal ptoutline until January 31 2013, 11.59 pm.

Source material and further information: http://www.bmbf.de/foerderungen/19812.php