Prodromal Synaptic and Circuit Changes that Contribute to AD/ADRD Onset and Progression (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)
Funding Agency:
- National Institutes of Health
Goal 1 of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease is to prevent and effectively treat Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias (ADRD) by 2025. ADRD are defined as Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD), Vascular Contributions to Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (VCID), Lewy Body Dementias (LBD) and Multiple Etiology Dementias (MED). Starting in 2012 the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) have held research summits to assess the needs and set AD/ADRD research implementation milestones. The NINDS ADRD Summit in 2019 resulted in the current ADRD research priorities for advancing the state-of-the-science toward meeting Goal 1 of the National Plan. One priority is new mechanistic research to understand how ADRD risk factors and disease are related to early changes in neural circuits in gray matter and white matter. Because the translational potential of knowledge about the effects of ADRD disease processes on neural circuits, from synapses to networks, is dependent on direct relevance to circuit function in the intact living brain, understanding early neural circuit changes in vivo that lead to ADRD relevant outcomes is critically important. Therefore, this FOA invites basic disease-related molecular mechanisms applications that develop and/or use in vivo models to investigate and understand, from a mechanistic standpoint, the earliest synaptic, circuit and network changes that contribute to AD/ADRD disease onset and pathogenesis. Utilization of emerging technology that lend themselves to advanced studies of synapses and circuits, for example developed in NIH BRAIN initiative, is encouraged. For applications that, in addition to in vivo studies, also propose cell and/or organoid based experiments, consider using existing NIH research resources such as the NINDS Human Cell and Data Repository. Research under this FOA should identify critical synaptic, circuit and network targets for novel AD/ADRD therapeutic development in the future.
Application budgets are limited to $500,000 in direct costs per year and need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.
February 05, 2022
Roderick A. Corriveau, PhD, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), Telephone: 301-496-5680, Email: roderick.corriveau@nih.gov