Parkinson's - MJFF funding opportunity Improved Biomarkers and Clinical Outcome Measures 2014

The Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) invites applications for the new programme Improved Biomarkers and Clinical Outcome Measures. Deadline to submit pre-proposals is December 3, 2014. MJFF intends to support multiple projects through this RFA and may fund up to $ 4 million. There is no set budget limit for proposals. In addition to facilitating trial design, biomarkers and clinical outcome measures aid interpretation of trial results, even if the drug fails to demonstrate desired efficacy. Therefore, MJFF aims to support development of biomarkers and outcome measures to garner knowledge that is critically important to the PD field - from a drug’s mechanism of action and its relevance in disease biology to understanding the biological basis underlying patient heterogeneity in drug response. In addition to general biomarkers of the disease and clinical features, MJFF is also interested in biomarkers of high priority targets such as alpha-synuclein, LRRK2, parkin and glucocerebrosidase.

Other funding opportunities are:

Target Validation: Pre-Proposals Due: October 29, 2014 - 6:00 pm US ET;
Therapeutic Pipeline Program: Pre-Proposals Due: October 29, 2014 - 6:00 pm US ET;
Rapid Response Innovation Awards: No deadline; Applications accepted anytime;
Dyskinesia Challenge 2014: No deadline; applications accepted anytime;
LRRK2 Challenge 2014: No deadline; applications accepted anytime;
Neurotrophic Factors Challenge 2014: No deadline; applications accepted anytime.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation works tirelessly to accelerate promising research toward clinical testing and breakthroughs for Parkinson’s patients. The strong emphasis of the Foundation is on funding translational and clinical research. It also supports high-risk/high-reward discovery work to help keep new ideas flowing into the drug development pipeline.