Neurodegenerative Disease Pilot Study Grant Program

 

Call for 2010 Pilot Studies

 
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The Massachusetts ADRC and the Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center have joined forces to fund the best novel ideas for pilot projects aimed at understanding and developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Together, we are pleased to announce a joint call for pilot study applications from investigators within the Harvard community.

Application Deadline: December 14th, 2009
Recipients Announced: February 2010
Award Starts: April 2010

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The Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center and the Massachusetts ADRC have joined forces to fund the best ideas for innovative pilot projects aimed at understanding and developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. Applications are judged on the basis of scientific merit, novelty and the value of the project in obtaining preliminary data that could lead to sponsored research (investigator-initiated R01 research grants, career development awards, industry or foundation support).

A successful pilot study helps investigators make a strong case for the more substantial funding required to conduct full scale clinical trials. Lab-based pilot research projects aimed at understanding neurodegenerative diseases often yield the preliminary data required for grant applications, which are imperative to further our comprehension of both the causes and effects of these debilitating diseases.

2009 Pilot Studies

Of the 29 applications received, the review committee selected the following seven winners:

Sydney S. Cash (MGH) — Subclinical Paroxysmal EEG Abnormalities in Alzheimer’s Disease

David Greer (MGH) — Effect of Cerebral Hypoperfusion on B-Amyloid Deposition

Guo-Fu Hu (HMS) — Stress-Induced Small RNAs in Neuron Survival

Nikolaus McFarland (MGH) — Examination of Brain Urate Metabolites in Neurodegenerative Disease

Scott McGinnis (MGH) — Application of Ultrahigh Resolution MRI to Develop Imaging Biomarkers in Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration

Jacob Sloane (BIDMC) — Identifying Proteins Associated with Impaired Remyelination and with Cortical Lesions in Multiple Sclerosis

Ottavio Vitolo (HMS) — Memory Network Dysfunction in Patients with Late Life Depression

Spring — 2008

Mark Albers (MGH) — Is the map of axon projections from human olfactory sensory neurons into the olfactory bulb disrupted in AD patients?

Paola Arlotta (MGH) — Induction of corticospinal motor neuron specifications by cell-autonomous transcription factor signaling

Susan Cotman (MGH) — Investigating accumulation of the mitochondrial atpase subunit c protein as a marker for autophagy dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease

Stefanie Freeman (MGH) - Pathologic phenotypes of Alzheimer's disease

Sang-Jun Jeon (MEEI) - Small molecules for regeneration of hair cells

Volney Sheen (BIDMC) — Mitochondrial dysfunction from astroglial S100B in human DS neural progenitors

Kai Sonntag (McLean) — Regulation of gene expression in dopamine neurons by miRNAs

Anand Viswanathan (MGH) — Cortical morphological consequences of subcortical vascular pathology in cerebral amyloid angiopathy

Spring — 2007

Christopher Gibbons (Roy Freeman) (BIDMC) — A human model of autonomic nerve fiber degeneration and regeneration

Steven Hersch (MGH) — Surrogate marker of therapeutic response in Huntington’s disease

Fuxin Shi (Albert Edge) (MEEI) — Replacement of auditory neurons to enhance the function of a cochlear implan

Olivia Okereke (Deborah Blacker) (MGH) — Pilot study for development of a shortened clinical dementia rating questionnaire

Daniel Press (BIDMC) — Genotype-phenotype relations underlying cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease

Eric Smith (MGH) — Pittsburgh compound-B imaging and subcortical small vessel damage

Spring — 2006

Brandon Ally (BWH) — P50 as a measure of cholinergic response in Alzheimer's disease

Phil de Jager (BWH) — Developing an immunoprofile into a diagnostic tool for multiple sclerosis

Allitia DiBernardo (MGH) — Open-label, dose-escalating clinical trial of high-dose creatine in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Florian Eichler (MGH) — Immunomodulatory therapy in X-linked adrenolukodystrophy

Stephen Gomperts (MGH) — Alpha-synuclein measurement and molecular imaging in Parkinson's disease dementia

Christopher Holland (BWH) — Evaluating continuous arterial spin labeling in the investigation of the role of perfusion in the evolution and repair of white matter lesions in multiple sclerosis

Lisa Krivickas (Spaulding) — Motor unit behavior in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis 

Spring — 2005

James Beck, MD, PhD (Mass Mental Health Hospital) — Neuregulin 1 and Schizophrenia Phenotype

Joan Camprodon, MD (BIDMC) — Stroke Repair and Neglect Recovery:  An fMRI Study Assessing Physiopathologic Mechanisms and TMS Applications for Rehabilitation Therapy

Michael Irizarry, MD (MGH) — High Dose Multivitamin Treatment: Effect on Plasma A-Beta and White Matter Lesions in the VISP study

Rachel Nardin, MD (BIDMC) — Diaphragm Training in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

David Wolk, MD (BWH) — ERP Correlates of Encoding and Retrieval in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease

Spring — 2004

Paolo Bonato, PhD (Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital) — Enhancing DBS parameter adjustment through measures of motor response

Andrew Budson, MD (BWH) — Using false recognition as an outcome measure for clinical trials

Gregory Esper, MD (BIDMC) — Assessment of neuromuscular disease using multifrequency-dependent electrical impedance myography

Dominik Meier, PhD (BWH) — Capturing short term disease activity in MS

Magdy Selim, MD, PhD (BIDMC) — A pilot study to evaluate the safety and tolerability of iron chelator, deferoxamine, in elderly stroke patients