Diet, Epigenetic Events, and Cancer Prevention (R01)

-Purpose. The aim of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to promote clinical and preclinical research to determine how diet and dietary factors, including dietary supplements, impact DNA methylation, histone posttranslational modification, and other epigenetic processes involved in cancer prevention and development. Another important aim of this FOA is to encourage collaborations between nutrition and epigenetic experts to study bioactive food components with cancer-preventative properties and to examine key epigenetic events in cancer processes (e.g., carcinogen metabolism, cell division, differentiation, and apoptosis) in order to begin to establish linkages between epigenetics, methylation patterns, and tumor incidences/behaviors. The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) is specifically interested in receiving applications that examine the impact(s) of chronic alcohol consumption on levels of S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), betaine, and folate, and possible associations with DNA methylation and cancer. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) is particularly interested in receiving applications that address normal and neoplastic conditions focusing on the impact of epigenetics on cell division, differentiation, and/or apoptosis in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and related organs. -Mechanism of Support. This FOA will utilize the R01 grant mechanism and runs in parallel with two FOAs of identical scientific scope PA-06-414, which solicits applications using the NIH small (R03) grant mechanism, and PA-06-413, which solicits applications using the NIH exploratory/developmental (R21) grant mechanism.