Director, USAMRAA, 820 Chandler St, Fort Detrick, MD 21702-5014

A -- GULF WAR ILLNESS RESEARCH PROGRAM SOL CBD&&&-9711-0001 POC CRAIG D. LEBO, Contracting Officer 301-619-2036 E-MAIL: Click here to contact the Contracting Officer via e-mail., craig_lebo@ftdetrck-ccmail.army.mil. GULF WAR ILLNESSES RESEARCH PROGRAM -- The USAMRMC announces an FY 98 competition for the Gulf War Illnesses Research Program. The Department of Defense solicits research proposals for studies on the possible health risks associated with service in the Gulf War. The goals of this research are to discover the pathogenesis of unexplained illnesses of Gulf War veterans, to use this understanding of basic mechanisms to help veterans, and to avoid or reduce the occurrence of such unexplained illnesses in future military deployments. Proposals may be submitted only by U.S. institutions of higher education (other than federal government) with degree-granting programs in science and/or engineering (~universities~), or by consortia led by such institutions. This solicitation is specifically for research in three areas of focus: (1) Investigation of the confluence of cognitive, emotional and physical factors which produce chronic, non- specific symptoms and physiological outcomes typical of the undiagnosed illnesses of some Gulf War veterans. Examples of studies sought range from sociological studies of the stress manifestations of military deployment to basic studies of psychoneuroimmunological mechanisms which elucidate physical symptoms such as muscle weakness, fatigue, and joint pain; (2) Studies of toxicity and toxic interactions of environmental chemicals, prophylactic drugs, and military materiel. Examples of studies sought in this topic include, but are not limited to, improved understanding of health effects of combinations of exposures specific to the Gulf War (including jet fuel vapor, pesticides and insect repellents, and pyridostigmine bromide), studies of biomarkers to denote individual exposure to toxic substances, and the development of near-real time bioassays and bioelectronic sensor technologies for assessment of toxicological hazards in future deployments. This latter research should emphasize identification of fundamental physiological endpoints in bioassays which could be applied to bioelectronic sensor development to identify hazards from unidentified chemicals and chemical mixtures; (3) Studies of long-term health consequences associated with exposure to subclinical levels of chemical warfare agents. Examples include epidemiological studies of soldiers who may have been exposed to chemical warfare agent without acute symptoms, and epidemiological studies on the health consequences of exposure in populations, such as passengers present during the Tokyo subway attack and individuals who participated in chemical agent research or worked in production plants or storage facilities. Full proposals must be prepared in accordance with USAMRMC Broad Agency Announcement 95-1. This is accessible on the Internet at http://www- usamraa.army.mil. USAMRMC will issue no other version of this program description; no paper copy will be available from USAMRMC. No preproposals are necessary, all are encouraged to submit if the proposal content addresses any of the three studies above. Proposals typically average 2-4 years in duration and typically range in cost between $200K and $1.5M. Funds available for this solicitation total approximately $8M. Full proposals are due to Commander, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, ATTN: MCMR-AAA (GWI), Fort Detrick, MD 21702-5014, by 4:00 p.m. EST on 4 February 1998. The primary evaluation criteria will be (1) scientific and technical merits of the proposed research as determined by external (non-DOD) peer review, and (2) relevance and potential contributions of the research to Gulf War illnesses as determined by the Research Working Group of the Persian Gulf Veterans' Coordinating Board. Collaboration with DOD laboratories and other organizations involved in medical research for defense applications is encouraged but not required. (0322)

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