Biology Of Aging Dental, Oral And Craniofacial Tissues (R01 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed) | RFA DE 18 009

Opportunity Information: Apply for RFA DE 18 009

The Biology Of Aging Dental, Oral And Craniofacial Tissues funding opportunity (RFA DE 18 009) is a discretionary NIH research grant using the R01 mechanism, and it is specifically marked as Clinical Trial Not Allowed. The program is aimed at advancing basic and translationally relevant research on how aging changes the biology of dental, oral, and craniofacial (DOC) tissues, and how those changes compare to, or intersect with, aging processes in other organs and systems. The central idea is that oral and craniofacial tissues do not age in isolation; they are influenced by systemic immune function, chronic inflammation, metabolic shifts, and molecular regulation that also drive aging elsewhere in the body. By encouraging projects that connect DOC aging with broader aging biology, the FOA is trying to generate findings that are more mechanistic, more generalizable, and ultimately more useful for improving health in older adults.

A major focus of the FOA is on filling knowledge gaps about the basic biology behind age-associated differences in oral health and disease. That includes understanding what “normal” aging looks like in DOC tissues at the cellular and molecular levels, and how those age-driven baseline changes can increase vulnerability to disease or impair the body’s ability to respond to stressors such as infection, injury, dental procedures, or chronic conditions. The long-term goal is to improve oral health outcomes for older adults, not by testing clinical interventions in this FOA, but by strengthening the foundational science needed to design better prevention, diagnostics, and future therapies.

The announcement highlights three emphasis areas that applicants are expected to engage in, either directly or as core components of a broader mechanistic hypothesis. First is inflammation, including how immune function and inflammatory signaling change with age in oral and craniofacial tissues. This can cover chronic low-grade inflammation associated with aging, shifts in innate and adaptive immune responses, altered host-microbe interactions in the oral cavity, and inflammatory mechanisms that may contribute to tissue breakdown or impaired homeostasis over time. Second is tissue healing and regeneration, focusing on why repair processes slow or become less effective with age. In DOC tissues, that can involve changes in stem or progenitor cell function, altered extracellular matrix remodeling, reduced vascularization, impaired bone remodeling, or differences in wound healing dynamics that affect recovery after injury or procedures. Third is epigenetic regulation, meaning age-related changes in gene regulation that do not involve changes to DNA sequence, such as DNA methylation, histone modifications, chromatin structure, and non-coding RNAs. Epigenetic mechanisms are increasingly seen as central drivers of aging phenotypes, and the FOA encourages work that clarifies how epigenetic drift or remodeling influences oral tissue function, resilience, and disease susceptibility.

Collaboration is a key theme. The FOA is explicitly intended to stimulate collaborative research, which in practice often means bringing together expertise from dentistry, craniofacial biology, immunology, geroscience, regenerative medicine, genomics/epigenomics, and systems biology. Projects that connect DOC tissue aging to parallel mechanisms in other tissues and organs fit especially well, because they can help distinguish what is unique to the oral and craniofacial environment from what reflects broader organism-level aging biology. This kind of cross-tissue framing can also help identify shared pathways that might be targeted in the future to improve multiple age-affected systems, including oral health.

From an administrative standpoint, the opportunity is funded by the National Institutes of Health under CFDA number 93.121, and it uses the R01 grant mechanism (a standard multi-year research project grant). The posting lists an award ceiling of 250,000, and the original closing date was 2018-02-28, with a creation date of 2017-09-19. While that deadline indicates this specific FOA cycle is historical, the details still clearly convey the program’s scientific priorities and the kind of research NIH was seeking to catalyze through this announcement.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of organizations that can carry out biomedical research. Eligible applicants include state, county, city/township, and special district governments; independent school districts; public and state-controlled institutions of higher education; private institutions of higher education; nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) status (other than institutions of higher education); for-profit organizations other than small businesses; small businesses; public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities; and Native American tribal governments (federally recognized) as well as tribal organizations that are not federally recognized. The FOA also calls out additional eligible categories such as Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions, AANAPISI institutions, Hispanic-serving institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, faith-based or community-based organizations, regional organizations, eligible federal agencies, U.S. territories or possessions, and even non-U.S. entities (foreign organizations). In short, the program is designed to be accessible to a wide research community, including institutions that serve underrepresented populations and organizations positioned to contribute unique expertise, data, or infrastructure.

Overall, this FOA is best understood as a push to deepen the mechanistic science of how and why oral and craniofacial tissues change with age, with special attention to inflammation, regenerative capacity, and epigenetic control. By supporting rigorous, collaborative, non-clinical-trial R01 projects, the initiative aims to build the scientific foundation needed to eventually reduce the burden of age-associated oral disease and improve quality of life for older adults through better-informed prevention and future treatment strategies.

• The National Institutes of Health in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Biology Of Aging Dental, Oral And Craniofacial Tissues (R01 - Clinical Trial Not Allowed)" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.121.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2017-09-19.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-02-28. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $250,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others.

Apply for RFA DE 18 009

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