The National Institutes of Health (NIH) invites applications for a multisite study to comprehensively characterize ADRD relevant pathology related to cognitive impairment and dementia outcomes in post-mortem brains from persons with a history of traumatic brain injury.
Donor Name: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
State: All States
County: All Counties
U.S. Territories: American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/28/2023
Size of the Grant: $1,300,000
Grant Duration: 5 years
Details:
Investigations should elucidate the contribution of key individual (sex, age at time of injury, time since injury, social determinants of health, etc.) and injury characteristics (injury severity and frequency) to evaluate associations between neuropathological burden and antemortem clinicopathologic symptoms and outline the prevalence of TBI-related ADRD diagnoses, and CTE pathology in the specimen collected from participating brain banks. This NOFO intends to support applications that include retrospective samples, plans to acquire new brain tissue specimens, and methods to assess the antemortem symptomatology and clinical presentation. To further advance research in the area, broad sharing of clinical and neuropathological data will be a critical feature of successful applications, including the development of a digital resource for distribution and sharing of assessed neuropathological tissue.
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 (ADRDs) by 2025. ADRDs are defined as Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), 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) held research summits to assess the needs and set AD/ADRD research implementation milestones. The NINDS ADRD Summit 2022 resulted in ADRD research priorities for advancing the state-of-the-science toward meeting Goal 1 of the National Plan. One of the recommendations from the 2022 ADRD summit for MED emphasized the need for improved and early antemortem diagnosis, as it relates to traumatic brain injury (TBI)-related ADRD Pathology and other focus areas.
Specific Research Objectives and Requirements:
This NOFO intends to address knowledge gaps there were identified in the 2019 CTE conferences. Examples include but are not limited to:
- Characterize the neuropathological features of cTBI associated with ADRD and neurocognitive decline and prevalence of cTBI-related ADRD diagnoses and CTE pathology
- Elucidate how different neurodegenerative processes interact in cTBI
- Identify associations between ADRD neuropathological burden (presence and severity of any single or multiple pathologies) and antemortem clinicopathologic symptoms.
This NOFO intends to support applications that include the following aspects:
- NINDS/FITBIR TBI Neuropathological Common Data Elements (CDEs); both the retrospective clinical history and neuropathological CDEs with a minimum data collection of the Core recommendations. Funded applications from this NOFO are expected to participate in future NINDS CTE Neuropathological Diagnoses Consensus meetings by providing at least one neuropathologist to participate.
- Cases from traditionally minoritized and marginalized populations, including racial and ethnic groups, individuals with a lower socioeconomic status (SES), individuals that have sustained a TBI due to intimate partner violence and/or cases from individuals that were once incarcerated or without housing.
Special Consideration:
Additional Plans:
- An administrative plan, which includes coordinating the integration and management of activities including management of reporting, establishing milestones, organizing communications among sites, and resolving disputes.
- A plan to house and process the post-mortem brain tissue sufficient to support the needs of the projects. Applicants will be responsible for histological processing of all post-mortem tissue needed for the projects. If previously collected pre-mortem brain tissue will be used, clear details on how the specimens were processed and stored must be provided. For any newly collected samples, applicants are encouraged to follow protocols established during the NINDS Neuropathological CTE Consensus Conference for biospecimen collection, blocking, staining, storage, and CDE use. Unlike the resource sharing plan that describes how the applicant will maintain a publicly available digital library of pathology slides, the brain banking plan should describe how the applicant will process the tissue.
Funding Information
Application budgets are limited to no more than $1,300,000 in direct costs per year and need to reflect the actual needs of the proposed project.
Project Period
The scope of the proposed project should determine the project period. The maximum project period is 5 years.
Eligible Organizations
Higher Education Institutions
- Public/State Controlled Institutions of Higher Education
- Private Institutions of Higher Education
The following types of Higher Education Institutions are always encouraged to apply for NIH support as Public or Private Institutions of Higher Education:
- Hispanic-serving Institutions
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
- Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs)
- Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian Serving Institutions
- Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs)
Nonprofits Other Than Institutions of Higher Education
- Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
- Nonprofits without 501(c)(3) IRS Status (Other than Institutions of Higher Education)
For-Profit Organizations
- Small Businesses
- For-Profit Organizations (Other than Small Businesses)
Local Governments
- State Governments
- County Governments
- City or Township Governments
- Special District Governments
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Federally Recognized)
- Indian/Native American Tribal Governments (Other than Federally Recognized)
Federal Government
- Eligible Agencies of the Federal Government
- U.S. Territory or Possession
Other
- Independent School Districts
- Public Housing Authorities/Indian Housing Authorities
- Native American Tribal Organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Faith-based or Community-based Organizations
- Regional Organizations
Foreign Institutions
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) Entities (Foreign Institutions) are not eligible to apply.
- Non-domestic (non-U.S.) components of U.S. Organizations are not eligible to apply.
- Foreign components, as defined in the NIH Grants Policy Statement, are allowed.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
