Click a year below to learn more about each project, including grants, published manuscripts and intellectual property that followed from pilot projects.

2021 Pilot Projects

2021 Awards

  • Patient-Specific Neuroimaging Markers of Recovery After Traumatic Brain Injury
  • A model of human neuroprotection
  • Brain injury creates a supportive microenvironment for tumorigenesis
  • Mapping ketamine-orchestrated translatome to rapid-acting anti-anhedonic effects at the synaptic level with cell-type specific resolution
  • VEGFA as a potential therapeutic target to enhance motor recovery following acute and chronic nerve injury

2020 Pilot Projects

2020 Awards

  • Role of satellite glia cells in chemotherapy-induced neuropathy
  • Microglial Phagocytosis as a Determinant of Neuro-inflammation in AD pathogenesis
  • Defining the molecular basis for inhibiting LRP1-mediated cellular propagation of pathogenic tau
  • A synthetic gene therapy approach for Angelman syndrome
  • Targeting DNMT3A as a therapeutic strategy for Huntington’s disease

2019 Pilot Projects

2019 Awards

  • Determining the pathogenic role of FGFR3 autoantibodies in idiopathic small fiber neuropathy
  • Reversibility of amyloid-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease
  • SARM1 inhibition as a novel therapeutic strategy for Cln1 disease
  • Internet of things (IoT) monitoring of rodent home-cages to understand circadian plasticity
  • DNA methylation in Alzheimer’s disease

2018 Pilot Projects

2018 Awards

  • Reprogramming rod photoreceptors to treat retinal degeneration
  • Developing Biomarkers for chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy
  • Defining the mechanisms by which MS4A4A regulates TREM2 in Alzheimer disease
  • Utilizing Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Based Disease Models to Identify the Malignant Epigenetic State in Glioblastoma
  • Identification of Repurposed Prescription Medications as Neuroprotective Therapy for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

2017 Pilot Projects

2017 Awards

  • Unraveling the Mechanisms of Neuroma Prevention with the Use of Acellularized Nerve Allografts
  • Regulation of stop codon readthrough of Aqp4 and role in Aβ clearance
  • Eliciting Sensory Percepts by Macrosieve Stimulation of the Rat Sciatic Nerve
  • Role of Lysosomal Dysfunction in Aggregation and Spreading of Alpha-synuclein in vitro and in vivo

2016 Pilot Projects

2016 Awards

  • Dissecting Downstream SCN Neural Circuits in Sleep and Arousal
  • Transmissible protein aggregation in myodegenerative diseases
  • Development of a bioengineered construct library to repair long nerve defects

2015 Pilot Projects

2015 Awards

  • Fixing the Broken Clock: Optogenetic methods to restore circadian rhythms in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Mechanisms of neonatal seizures in a mouse model of term-equivalent cerebral hypoxia-ischemia
  • MicroRNA regulation of dendritic cell function in an animal model of multiple sclerosis
  • The role of DNA methylation in Huntington’s disease

2014 Pilot Projects

2014 Awards

  • Neuronal subtype-specific vulnerability in tauopathies using reprogramming methods in human somatic and stem cells
  • Identification and functional characterization of rare variants in DNAJC5/CSP gene associated with Alzheimer Disease
  • Characterization of neural bridge circuits for spinal cord repair
  • MR Elastography and CSF Biomarkers in Post-Hemorrhagic Hydrocephalus
  • Role of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) metabolism in the pathogenesis of retinal neurodegeneration

 

2013 Pilot Projects

2013 Awards

  • Promoting axonal regeneration in models of ALS via activation of the preconditioning response in iPSC-derived human neurons
  • TREM2 signaling as a biomarker and therapeutic target in ALS
  • Using biosensors to identify therapy-driven brain reorganization in children

2012 Pilot Projects

2012 Awards

  • Axonal Injury in Intracerebral Hemorrhage
  • Modulation of proteostasis for treatment of Niemann-Pick C disease
  • Immunomodulatory role of plasmacytoid dendritic cells in multiple sclerosis

2011 Pilot Projects

2011 Awards

  • DNAJB6 in protein aggregation: Integration of clinical material, mouse models and yeast genetics
  • Quantitation of Amyloid-β peptides in CSF of Alzheimer’s disease participants by immunoprecipitation/mass spectrometry (IP/MS) and solid phase extraction/mass spectrometry (SPE/MS)
  • Isolating Cell-Type Specific miRNAs from Mice
  • Noninvasive white matter histology of living EAE mice

2010 Pilot Projects

2010 Awards

  • Citalopram Decreases Aβ Plaque Accumulation in APP Mice and CSF Aβ in Humans
  • Identification and functional characterization of the genetic variant causing Kufs’ disease with early dementia in a family with an autosomal dominant inheritance
  • Cis-regulatory mapping of dominant human retinal neurodegenerative disorders
  • Mechanism of Huntington Aggregation Regulated by Profilin

2009 Pilot Projects

2009 Awards

  • PET tracers for cerebrovascular-specific amyloid imaging
  • Generating Amyloid Seeds in Lysosomes
  • Understanding How the Liver Successfully Handles Misfolded SOD1

2008 Pilot Projects

2008 Awards

  • Inhibition of the DLK/JNK Pathway as a Therapeutic Target for Axonopathy
  • Functional RNAi screen to identify pathways essential for protein aggregate clearance and degradation

2007 Pilot Projects

2007 Awards

  • Misfolded protein accumulation and neurodegeneration due to phospholipase gene mutations
  • Function of FGF14 in progressive spinocerebellar ataxia
  • Microdevice development for the study of axon degeneration and injury
  • Development of a Clinically Relevant Model of Infant Traumatic Brain Injury

2006 Pilot Projects

2006 Awards

  • Unraveling the amyloid fibril with polyphenols
  • In vivo labeled proteomics in human CSF
  • Use of hybrid mammalian-yeast prions to identify factors that inhibit protein aggregation

2005 Pilot Projects

2005 Awards

  • Genetics of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
  • Inhibitors of Sodium Channels as Axonal Protectants in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis
  • Stimulating Axonal Protection in ALS via Activation of Nuclear NAD Biosynthesis