Group items tagged

This FOA requests research applications to support development of clinical trials to treat critical and co-occurring health conditions in individuals with Down syndrome.  The overarching emphasis is on the acquisition of knowledge that can be translated into new, enhanced, or tailored therapies for co-occurring conditions in individuals with Down syndrome. Applications should focus on delivering better healthcare outcomes and should seek solutions that are effective and deliverable. Research is needed to develop or test new and innovative adaptations of current drugs, interventions, and therapies for the treatment and management of co-occurring conditions in Down syndrome. These therapies should be implementable and sustainable in clinical settings beyond the research environment. Research applications may address a particular co-occurring condition at a particular stage of development or across the lifespan in people with Down syndrome. Outcomes research and health services research related to Down syndrome are also responsive to this FOA. Because some aspects of this research area are new for the trans-NIH scientific community, there will likely be a need to obtain preliminary data or conduct early-stage clinical trial preparatory activities before moving to a full-scale project. The Exploratory/Developmental Phased Innovation (R61/R33) grant mechanism is appropriate for this purpose. It provides opportunities for creating, developing, and strengthening new and necessary collaborations, as well as acquisition of preliminary data, and allows for milestone-driven research, supporting a phased research project with a stepped approach for implementation of a clinical trial.

This FOA requests research to address critical health needs for individuals across the lifespan with Down syndrome. The overarching emphasis is on the acquisition of knowledge that can be translated into new, enhanced, or tailored therapies for co-occurring conditions in individuals with Down syndrome. To date, clinical trials for Down syndrome have been extremely limited and have primarily focused on improving cognition, memory and adaptive functioning.  Moreover, people with Down syndrome are often excluded from trials of potentially beneficial drugs and therapeutics that are used to treat the same condition in the general population.

This FOA requests research proposals to support collaborative investigative teams or individual scientists who propose unusually innovative research projects, which, if successful, would have a major impact in understanding the biology of Down syndrome and the development of new treatments for health conditions experienced by individuals with Down syndrome.  To be considered transformative, projects must have the potential to create or overturn fundamental scientific paradigms through novel approaches, transform the way research is conducted through the development of novel tools or technologies, or lead to major improvements in health through the development of highly innovative therapies, diagnostic tools, or preventive strategies. Consistent with this focus, Transformative Research Award applications should reflect ideas substantially different from mainstream concepts.

The goal of this funding opportunity announcement is to enable the identification of the longitudinal progression of Alzheimer's disease in adults with Down Syndrome using clinical, cognitive, imaging, genetic and biochemical biomarkers.