DEADLINES EXTENDED

Dear Colleague,

Thanks to generous support from Project ALS, the ALS Therapy Alliance, and private donors, the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center is pleased to announce the launch of the Collaborative ALS Drug Discovery Initiative, a major new program of early stage ALS drug discovery that combines biological and mechanistic expertise of investigators around the world with our dedicated drug discovery team.

The Collaborative ALS Drug Discovery Initiative is based on a model pioneered by the Laboratory for Drug Discovery in Neurodegeneration, a unique translational research program to discover agents to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

You are invited to submit a proposal for a novel target or approach to ALS drug discovery, including a sound rationale for how you hope to interfere with the disease process and a proposed assay that will allow us to screen for biological active compounds with the desired effect. Proposals will be assessed by our ALS review panel and successful applicants will be invited to send a research fellow to spend at least one year with our large drug discovery team. The most promising projects will continue into year two and beyond as a collaborative focused program of medicinal chemistry to optimize lead compounds and animal testing.

We will award 3 fellowships in year 1 of the program.  Each will cover laboratory costs and salary/stipend for your fellow to work for one year in our labs in Cambridge, MA, to translate your basic research projects into a therapeutic lead.

For details of this unique opportunity to work in a biotech-like atmosphere and to transform your basic neurobiological findings into a drug discovery program, and for instructions on how to apply, click here.

PLEASE NOTE – WE HAVE EXTENDED THE PROGRAM DEADLINES:
IF YOU HAVE ALREADY SUBMITTED A LETTER OF INTENT – THANK YOU – THERE IS NO NEED TO SUBMIT A NEW LETTER

• July 25th, 2008 - Letter of intent due.
• August 29th, 2008 - full application package due.
• September 26th, 2008 - Notification of decisions sent to applicants.
• October-December 2008 - New applicants arrive at LDDN.

Robert H. Brown, Jr., DPhil, MD
Professor Neurology, HMS
Director Day Neuromusc. Res. Lab, MGH
Co-Chair  CADDI

Ross L. Stein, PhD
Assoc. Prof. Neurology, HMS
Director,  LDDN
Co-Chair  CADDI