SPONSORED PROJECTS

The Dana Foundation - 2012 Program in Brain and Immuno-Imaging

Key Deadlines: January 23, 2012 (CWRU internal application), February 28, 2012 (Sponsor Deadline).

The Dana Foundation's imaging research program focuses on improving human brain and brain-immune functioning in health and disease. Funds support pilot-testing by investigators who are early in their research careers of promising but high-risk innovative ideas that have direct clinical application and that, when successful, are competitive for larger-scale support from other funders.

The program is designed to enable investigators to obtain pilot data more quickly than is possible through other funding processes. Investigations must be applicable to human brain or brain-immune functioning or malfunctioning to be considered for funding. Research that can be supported through clinical income should not be submitted.

Preliminary applications are eligible to use either:

• Physiological and Structural imaging - anatomical imaging of white or gray matter and measures of physiological functioning. These proposed studies should focus on patient-oriented clinical research.
• Cellular/molecular imaging - biochemical actions of specific brain cells, or their interactions with immune cells, which have direct clinical relevance to human health and disease. These studies may involve human tissues or animal models. Applications can involve the study of cells within neural circuits, using a combination of imaging and single cell electrical recording, if the techniques have already been developed.

Previously funded studies under this Program have focused primarily on:

1. understanding normal brain functioning, how it is altered by disease or injury, and how it recovers or repairs,
2. assessing and improving diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, and
3. refining and advancing imaging technologies to address specific clinical questions.

In addition to these three general areas of continued interest, it is becoming increasingly apparent that neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, and mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and depression start long before they are clinically evident. The Foundation, therefore, encourages studies that seek to understand developmental processes of disease, surrogate measures of early disease existence, and measures of disease progression. Also, for chronic traumatic encephalopathy and Alzheimer's disease, the role of tau is becoming of increasing interest and the Foundation is receptive to considering studies on how to image tau.

Number of Applications Allowed: One preliminary application per invited institution

Amount of Funding: May be up to $200,000 total payable over three years

The official announcement and description of this opportunity may be found on the foundation’s website: http://www.dana.org/grants/imaging/default.aspx

Selection Criteria:

• Funding is to be directed at projects that may be too innovative and speculative for traditional funding sources but still have a high likelihood of producing important findings. This should be a unique project for senior investigators who are encouraged to stretch their imagination into areas that can substantially change an area of research.
• Funding of research projects that will likely lead to successful grant applications with NIH and other public and private funding entities.
• PI can receive a maximum of 2 consecutive years of funding.

Eligibility:

• Support is focused on faculty researchers who have demonstrated the potential for independent research careers who are at the assistant professor level or in the first few years of their associate professor appointments.
• Applications from junior investigators that are an extension of the work of a senior mentor, particularly if from the same institution, are discouraged.
• For both conventional and cellular imaging proposals, promising career investigators who have not yet been awarded more than one independent research grant (R01 from the NIH or equivalent from another Federal agency) are eligible to apply.

All applicants please note:

• All proposals that seek to develop new imaging techniques or assays, or modify existing ones to address clinical questions, whether in structural/physiological or cellular/molecular imaging, must provide preliminary evidence of feasibility and evidence of the investigator's experience in using the technology. Proposals seeking support without such preliminary evidence will not be considered.
• Investigators proposing patient-oriented studies should provide preliminary evidence that the required number of participants—patients and controls—are available at the research institution(s) involved.
• For all proposals that do not propose to undertake studies in humans, the direct relevance to human health and functioning needs to be explicitly stated. These proposed studies will only be considered if they are designed to: 1) pose a specific question concerning the disease process that is directly related to known aspects of brain pathology seen in the human; 2) alter a factor in a healthy animal for which there is some evidence of the factor's involvement in a human disease process (as opposed to altering a factor in a healthy animal to see if the result resembles a human brain disease); and 3) be translated into studies in the human following the three-year grant period.
• Certain areas are not appropriate for consideration:

• Ideas for which you do not have preliminary data.
• Instrument development without initial evidence of feasibility and clinical applicability.

Nomination Process:

Required Documents:

1. A 2-3 page proposal to include:
   • a. A succinctly stated hypothesis,
   • b. The aims of the proposed research,
   • c. Research significance and potential clinical application(s), and
   • d. The methods -- tests or studies proposed to develop the pilot data.
   • Full CV – please note any existing or pending grants that are related to or could potentially overlap with the proposed Dana study.
   • Letter of Nomination from your Chair. The letter should specify the facilities and resources used in the research and evidence that required technologies are available for your project.

Deadlines:

University Contact: