Request for proposals about Alzheimer's and neuroimmunity

The Alzheimer’s Strategic Fund: Neuroimmune Program is a new funding mechanism of the Alzheimer's Association to address gaps in understanding how immune responses may impact Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AD-related disorders. Potential themes may include, but are not limited to, studies that:

  • Investigate mechanisms underlying immune dysregulation in AD associated with e.g., genetic variants, comorbidities, environmental risk factors, biological sex, or history of SARS-COV2 infection.
  • Augment cohort studies with additional biomarker and genetic analyses including multi-omic approaches, epigenetics, and genomics; blood and cerebrospinal fluid analyte and neuroimaging.
  • Develop longitudinal characterization of immune function to understand immune system dynamics and identify biomarkers with which to measure innate or adaptive immune function that is relevant to AD.
  • Develop systematic, longitudinal immunoprofiling of immune cells, both peripherally and centrally, in subjects with deep phenotypic characterization relevant to AD pathology, in order to understand how systemic and brain immune functions affect one another and impact biological underpinnings.
  • Explore single-cell sequencing technologies to characterize and assess comparisons between AD, other dementia and control samples.
  • Transfer knowledge of immune function from other research fields (e.g., cancer, HIV, cardiovascular disease, diabetes) and apply these lessons to AD models in order to stimulate new knowledge and findings

The maximum grant amount is $300,000, with anticipated funding ranges to be $150,000 to $300,000, depending on the project scope. No indirect costs are allowable for this funding program. The maximum project duration is 3 years, and there is no minimum timeframe.

Letters of intent (LOIs) will be accepted through 5:00 PM EST Thursday, August 20, 2020. LOIs will be reviewed and moved forward on a rolling basis. The LOI is a required step in the application process. LOIs must be completed online at https://proposalcentral.com. More information and proposal instructions are available here.