CHICAGO, IL, August 28, 2012 – The American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA) is now accepting Letters of Intent for its Discovery Grant funding program. Letters are due in the ABTA office no later than 11:59 p.m. (CDT) on October 10, 2012. Discovery Grants are one-year, $50,000 grants that fund high-impact projects deemed to have the potential to change current diagnostic or treatment paradigms for adult and pediatric brain tumor care. Proposals can address any type of brain tumor, including benign or malignant, primary or secondary.
“The ABTA Discovery Grant program supports a diverse variety of innovative approaches to brain tumor diagnostics and therapeutics” said Deneen Hesser, ABTA research director. “Our encouragement of fresh thinking has evolved into an expectation of research creativity.”
In its first three years, the Discovery Grant program has provided funding to develop two new classes of brain tumor drugs, nanoparticle strategies for drug delivery, the exploration of “junk” DNA as a predictor of brain tumor development, a new immunotherapy using a canine research model, and urinary biomarkers that may predict the spread of pediatric medulloblastoma, among many other topics.
“This is an opportunity for scientists working in fields outside traditional tumor biology to propose potentially paradigm changing, creative approaches to either primary or metastatic brain tumors,” Hesser continued.
For grant details and Letter of Intent instructions, visit the ABTA Funding Opportunities web page at www.abta.org/advancing-research/abta-funding-opportunities.html. Grant questions can be directed to Alexandra Sierra, research program coordinator, at grants@abta.org.
ABOUT THE AMERICAN BRAIN TUMOR ASSOCIATION
Founded in 1973, the American Brain Tumor Association was the first national nonprofit organization dedicated solely to brain tumors. For nearly 40 years, the ABTA has been providing comprehensive resources that support the complex needs of brain tumor patients and caregivers, as well as the critical funding of research in the pursuit of breakthroughs in brain tumor diagnosis, treatment and care. To learn more about the ABTA, visit www.abta.org
