Research supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), strives to understand, treat, and ultimately prevent the myriad infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases that threaten millions of human lives. The NIAID Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID) supports extramural research for the investigation, control and prevention of diseases caused by all infectious agents other than HIV. Support for basic and applied research to develop and evaluate therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostics is provided through a variety of research grants and contracts.  DMID also supports an array of research resources and services to assist investigators, including programs that provide or make available genomic data and technologies; organisms and state-of-the-art reagents; biocontainment facilities; and preclinical and clinical translational research services (http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/research/resources/dmid).

The development and introduction of new therapeutic products against potential agents of bioterrorism, drug-resistant pathogens, emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, as well as infectious diseases prevalent in resource-limited countries remain a high public health priority. To assist in filling these public health gaps, the NIAID established a nontraditional, proactive, and product development-oriented program to provide preclinical product development support for promising biopharmaceutical therapeutic candidates for human infectious diseases or diseases caused by infectious agents.  The purpose of this solicitation is to recompete this program and include services supportive of new diagnostics for infectious disease-causing pathogens and/or toxins.