$10M research initiative will fund research on neuroinflammation
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The American Brain Foundation has announced the launch of a $10 million cross-disciplinary research initiative for neuroscientists to investigate the role of neuroinflammation in a wide range of neurologic and psychiatric brain diseases.
According to a release issued by the organization, the new effort is part of its Cure One, Cure Many program, which promotes innovative methods to diagnose and treat diseases connected to the brain.
The collaboration expects to unite the medical community, pharmaceutical organizations, venture and private philanthropists, as well as patient advocacy and nonprofit organizations like the National MS Society, the Encephalitis Society and the NFL Players Association, the organization said.
“Bringing together partners from so many different fields is the fastest, most innovative way to drive forward innovative research and harness the potential of the immune system to treat, repair, and even cure some of the most devastating brain diseases and disorders,” Stephen Hauser, MD, ABF board member and director of the Weill Institute for Neurosciences at the University of California San Francisco, said in the release. “Research funded by the initiative will impact diseases as widespread and different as Parkinson’s, encephalitis, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, brain trauma, autism and others.”
The ABF’s main research partner, the American Academy of Neurology, is expected to assist the undertaking by vetting applications and selecting awardees.
Per the release, the ABF expects to make phase 1 grants from an initial pool of $5 million in 2025. Phase 2 grants, which will be bolstered by an additional $5 million, will assist the ABF and its partners to fund new projects and to provide follow-up funding to the most promising phase 1 projects.
The ABF said it would begin soliciting research proposals for the neuroinflammation initiative in spring 2024, with research expected to commence in 2025.
“We are very pleased to support this novel initiative, which has the potential to uncover common mechanisms across many different brain diseases and disorders of the nervous system, including multiple sclerosis,” Bruce Bebo, executive vice president of research at the National MS Society, said in the release. “This venture holds promise for identifying new pathways to stop destructive immune activity in millions of people living with these disorders.”