Program Directors and Managers

HEAL Biomarker Program

Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) 

Portfolio: Basic and translational studies that relate to traumatic brain injury (TBI); cognitive/emotional domains affected by TBI; TBI-related dementia including Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)    

Additional Keywords: Brain trauma, damage, and cortical impact; concussion; repetitive head injury; pre-clinical (animal models); diffuse axonal injury

Portfolio: Basic and translational aspects of behavior and cognitive neuroscience; CNS plasticity; Lewy Body Dementia; neuroimaging development (disease-agnostic)    

Additional Keywords: Normal adult learning and memory, spatial orientation, cognitive functions, circuits, connectomics; PET ligand development; MR imaging sequence development; improved methods for imaging the neurovasculature (e.g., MRA); Parkinson’s Disease dementia; dementia with Lewy Bodies

Portfolio: HEAL Initiative Early Translational Efforts; HEAL PRECISION Human Pain Network    

Additional Keywords: Animal models for pain

Portfolio: Responses to spinal cord injury or peripheral nerve injury, including axonal regeneration; interventions to promote recovery and/or restore function    

Additional Keywords: Peripheral nerve crush and regeneration; degenerative cervical myelopathy

Portfolio: Global Health and Health Disparities

Additional Keywords: Vascular neurology, clinical trials, epidemiology, global health, minority health, health disparities and health equity

Portfolio: Large vessel occlusion (LVO), thrombectomy, hemorrhagic transformation, blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption after stroke  

Additional Keywords: Preconditioning and postconditioning; secondary ischemic stroke injury; vascular protection, plasticity, and repair after stroke; treatment of post-stroke cognitive impairment; stroke comorbidities and genetics

Cooperative Research to enable and Advance Translational Enterprises (CREATE), Preclinical Neurotherapeutic Biologics Development

SIREN (Strategies to Innovate EmeRgENcy Care Clinical Trials Network); clinical trials in neurologic, heart, lung, blood, and traumatic injuries

Small Business Programs (SBIR/STTR); BRAIN Dissemination Research Resource Program

Portfolio: Motor control and learning; device-based or behavioral interventions for movement disorders, stroke, and cerebral palsy; neural rehabilitation    

Additional Keywords: n/a

Portfolio: Acquired epilepsies (with focus on circuit mechanisms, seizure initiation, seizure detection, seizure prediction); comorbidities and co-occurring conditions such as aging: cognitive impairments, ID, post-traumatic epilepsy, stroke-induced seizures, seizures in aging and development; Refractory Seizures and Status Epilepticus; basic research on synaptic transmission and plasticity

Additional Keywords: Learning and memory; glutamatergic and GABAergic signaling

Portfolio: Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Program Lead; Point of Contact for Vascular Contributions to Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (VCID), for example Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI), Vascular Dementia (VaD), Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy (CAA), and CADASIL    

Additional Keywords: Small cerebral vessel diseases (e.g. atherosclerosis, arteriolosclerosis); post-stroke VCID; multi-infarct dementia; TBI with vascular lesions that lead to dementia; heart failure related to cognitive decline; cardiovascular and cerebrovascular dysfunction; anti-beta-amyloid immunotherapy

Education and other projects related to improving research quality

Portfolio: NIH NeuroBioBank (human brain tissue banking)  

Additional Keywords:  n/a

Portfolio: Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network (BPN) Program and HEAL Optimization of Non-addictive Therapies [Small Molecules and Biologics] to Treat Pain 
 
Shared Interests: Translational research and development across all clusters and programs, Medicinal Chemistry and small molecule drug discovery and development

Portfolio: HIV-associated neurological disorders, infectious diseases of the nervous system, neurovirology, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease and other transmissible spongiform encephalopathies HIV-associated neurological disorders, infectious diseases of the nervous system, neurovirology, and Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease and other transmissible spongiform encephalopathies    

Additional Keywords: Neuroinfectious diseases; viral (HIV, HSV, ZIKV, SARS-CoV-2), bacterial, parasitic, and fungal CNS infection; prion-related disorders; Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE); Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD); Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE); NeuroAIDS

Portfolio: BRAIN Integrated Approaches/Circuits Research Project Grants (R34, R01) and Exploratory Team-research BRAIN Circuit Program - eTeamBCP (U01); NINDS Collaborative Opportunities for Multidisciplinary, Bold, and Innovative Neuroscience (COMBINE RM1); team science; species diversity  

Additional Keywords: Integrative function of brain circuits; basic systems neuroscience; team science; species diversity

Portfolio: Trans-NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Network (UDN)    

Additional Keywords: Rare and undiagnosed diseases

Portfolio: Primary brain tumor (pediatric and young adult) 
Additional Keywords: Immunotherapy, immunosuppression, and viral therapy; brain tumor metabolism and RNA biology; medulloblastoma; diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas (DIPG)

Translational Neural Devices, BRAIN Initiative, HEAL Initiative, Movement and Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Portfolio: Research Opportunities in Humans; BRAIN Initiative    

Additional Keywords: Human neuroscience

Portfolio: Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) (833)

Additional Keywords: G Protein Coupled Receptor, G proteins, drug discovery, signal transduction, high throughput screening, functional/cell-based screening assays, personalized medicine, pharmacogenomics

Portfolio: Systems and computational neuroscience; BRAIN Initiative (integrative systems neuroscience; team-research brain circuits programs)    

Additional Keywords: Systems neurobiology; computational neuroscience; team science

Portfolio: Basic, preclinical, and clinical research in pain; peripheral and central mechanisms, pathways, circuits and processing of pain  

Additional Keywords: Pain: chronic, acute, neuropathic, preclinical models, management; sensory neuron and ganglia; nociceptor, nociceptive, analgesia, analgesic, hyperalgesia

Translational Neural Devices, BRAIN Initiative, HEAL Initiative

Portfolio: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS), Progressive Muscular Atrophy (PMA), ALS-Frontotemporal Degeneration (ALS-FTD)    

Additional Keywords: Accelerating Medicines Partnership for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (AMP-ALS); SOD1, FUS, TDP-43, C9orf72, TBK1; skeletal muscle; motor neuron; axon degeneration and autophagy; motor neuron death

Pediatric Epilepsy; Clinical Epilepsy Research

Portfolio: CNS and homeostatic regulation of sleep and circadian rhythms; sleep in neurological disorders; neuroendocrine systems    

Additional Keywords: Entrainment, arousal, and thermoregulation; neuroendocrine systems; sleep disorders (REM, non-REM, hypersomnia, narcolepsy); Restless Legs Syndrome; Suprachiasmatic Nucleus

Portfolio: Blood-brain barrier (BBB) biology, cerebrovascular biology, and cerebrovascular disease unless ischemic stroke-related; global ischemia/cardiac arrest    

Additional Keywords: Glymphatic system; anoxia; pial collaterals; developmental angiogenesis; hypertension; global Ischemia

EPPIC-Net, HEAL Initiative, Vascular Contributions to Cognitive Impairment and Dementia (VCID), and Pediatric Research

Portfolio: Neuroethics, Bioethics

Translational Neural Devices; Neural prostheses, neural engineering, sensory prostheses, brain-computer interfaces (BCI), prosthetic-limb control, peripheral and spinal interfaces, electrochemistry, implantable materials

Portfolio: BRAIN Initiative New Technologies (R01, RF1); BRAIN Initiative Optimization (U01)    

Additional Keywords: Bioengineering, biosensing, brain-inspired AI, brain-machine interfaces, electrode development, microelectrode array, neuromodulation technologies, neural stimulation/recording devices, neuroimaging, neural interfaces, neural probe, nanotechnology, neuromorphic devices for brain health, organoid-based neurotechnologies, robotics-assisted neurotechnologies, ultrasound-based neuroimaging/stimulation

Clinical trials and epidemiology, Cerebrovascular disease, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), NINDS Stroke Trials Network and the Neurological Emergencies Treatment Trials Network (NETT)

NIH Counterterrorism (CounterACT) program, neural exposome, neurotoxicology, translational research, and diversity in the research workforce

Portfolio: BRAIN CONNECTS Program; BRAIN Initiative Advanced Postdoctoral Career Transition Award to Promote Diversity (K99/R00)    

Additional Keywords: Neural circuit mapping; connectivity and connectomics; cell types; neuroimaging; team science; training and career development

Epilepsy Therapy Screening Program (ETSP), Preclinical Pharmacology, Animal Models. Preclinical Neurotherapeutic Development

Portfolio: Aneurysm/malformations, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), pediatric stroke/brain injury, intracranial pressure (when related to hemorrhagic stroke), microbleeds, cerebral palsy, congenital heart disease    

Additional Keywords: Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH); intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH); intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH); brain arteriovenous malformations (bAVM); disorders of consciousness; germinal matrix hemorrhage

Portfolio: Primary brain tumor (adult)  

Additional Keywords:  Immunotherapy and immunosuppression; brain tumor invasion, signaling, angiogenesis, and necrosis; glioma stem cell biology; glioblastoma

Translational Neural Devices; Neural engineering with emphases in neuroprostheses, neuromodulation, brain-computer interface (BCI) devices, prosthetic control, and neural interface technology development

Portfolio: Neurogenesis and progenitor cell biology in nervous system development and function, application/treatment; tissue engineering; human embryonic stem cells; human fetal tissue; dendritic growth and plasticity    

Additional Keywords: Gliogenesis; reprogramming; fate specification; cell fate; neuronal regeneration; neurogenesis; neural progenitor cells; pluripotent stem cells

Portfolio: Acquired epilepsies (with focus on epilepsies with immunological or infectious etiology); epilepsy prevention strategies, disease modifying interventions, and cell replacement therapies; comorbidities and co-occurring conditions: auto-immune, viral, psychiatric and hormonal; Lafora Disease; temporal lobe epilepsy; basic research on synaptic function; tripartite synapse    

Additional Keywords: Neurogenesis; neuroinflammation; Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE); synaptic transmission, function, and development; synaptogenesis; intracellular synaptic signaling; electrical synapse; synapse regulation by astrocyte/glia

Portfolio: Research Supplements to Support Diversity and Re-entry/Re-integration in Biomedical Research, Diversity F31, Doctoral Readiness R25, ENDURE R25, Summer R25, R13 Appropriate Representation

Additional Keywords: N/A

Portfolio: Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD)    

Additional Keywords: n/a

Portfolio: Alzheimer's disease (AD), Limbic-predominant Age-related TDP-43 Encephalopathy (LATE), and Multiple Etiology Dementia (MED)    

Additional Keywords: APP, presenilins, beta-amyloid, ApoE; tauopathies; Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias (ADRD) co-pathologies (e.g., tau, alpha-synuclein, TDP-43, TMEM106B, vascular)

Strategies to Innovate Emergency Care Clinical Trials Network (SIREN), Common Data Elements (CDE), Data Sharing, Clinical Trials, Human Subjects

Portfolio: Huntington's Disease; invertebrate NMJ development, structure, and function; NIH NeuroBioBank (human brain tissue banking)  

Additional Keywords: Human brain single cell omics

Portfolio: Translational mechanistic pain research; itch, peripheral somatosensation, and glia/neuroimmune biology (non-pain); HEAL Initiative    Pain: chronic, acute, neuropathic, preclinical models, management; sensory neuron and ganglia; nociceptor, nociceptive, analgesia, analgesic, hyperalgesia; thermosensation

Portfolio: Technology development for gene-targeted therapies; various uncommon and rare diseases (including neural tube defects (spina bifida), hydrocephalus and normal pressure hydrocephalus, Tourette syndrome and tics, Neurofibromatosis 1 and 2, Schwannomatosis, Noonan Syndrome, inborn errors of metabolism, lysosomal storage disorders, leukodystrophies, brain iron accumulation disorders (NBIA), copper metabolism disorders, congenital disorders of glycosylation, mitochondrial disorders, and peroxisomal disorders); Ataxia Telangiectasia and basic studies on ATM mutation related DNA damage and DNA repair; neural crest and neural tube development    

Additional Keywords: Lesch-Nyhan Disease; Phenylketonuria (PKU) Deficiency; Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome; Wilson’s disease; Menkes; adult-onset leukoencephalopathy; adrenoleukodystrophy; Aicardi Goutieres syndrome; Alexander’s disease; Canavan; Krabbe; metachromatic leukodystrophy; Pelizaeus-Mezbacher; vanishing white matter disease

Portfolio: Muscular dystrophies; spinal muscular atrophy and inherited peripheral neuropathies (e.g. Charcot-Marie-Tooth, giant axonal neuropathy, familial dysautonomia) and inflammatory or autoimmune peripheral neuropathies (e.g. myasthenia gravis, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy); diabetic- and chemotherapy induced-peripheral neuropathies    

Additional Keywords: SMN, SMARD, DUX4, dystrophin, PMP22, gigaxonin; Duchenne, limb-girdle, congenital, facioscapulohumeral, oculopharngeal, myotonic dystrophy; Cajal Bodies; slow channel syndrome; inherited peripheral sensory and/or motor neuropathies; acquired peripheral neuropathies; acute flaccid myelitis (AFM); demyelination/remyelination in the PNS

Portfolio: Sensory and multi-sensory systems, cortical and thalamic circuits, integrative function of brain circuits, sensorimotor integration, computational neuroscience, and Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS), Smart and Connected Health (SCH)    

Additional Keywords: Interoception-CNS interactions

Portfolio: Migraine and other headache disorders; trigeminal pain; HEAL Initiative  

Additional Keywords: Headache: chronic, acute, preclinical pain models, pain management, neuropathic trigeminal pain, Trigeminal ganglia

Portfolio: NINDS Biorepository (BioSEND); NINDS Human Cell and Data Repository (NHCDR); NINDS Biospecimen Resource Access Committees (BRACs)  

Additional Keywords: Fibroblast; cell lines; IPSC

Portfolio: Spinocerebellar Ataxias (SCAs), Friedreich’s Ataxia (FRDA/FA), Spinal and Bulbar Muscular Atrophy (SBMA), Hereditary Spastic Paraplegias (HSPs); Cell death mechanisms relevant to neurodegenerative disorders and not due to ischemia per se; Basic Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration including Mitochondrial / ER / Calcium homeostasis, RNA biology and protein turnover; Neuromuscular Junction Biology (vertebrate)    

Additional Keywords: Ataxins, spastins, frataxin, and androgen receptors; Purkinje cells, cortical projection neurons, motor neurons, and skeletal muscles; basic mechanisms of neurodegeneration (axonal biology; bioenergetics; metabolism; oxidative and ER stress; autophagy; DNA repair; RNA biology)

Portfolio: Early pattern formation; cortical, cerebellar, midbrain, and hindbrain development; chromatin structure and function in the nervous system; epigenetic mechanisms; development and use of animal model systems; Joubert and Dandy-Walker Syndrome; Chiari Malformations; Down Syndrome and diseases related to intellectual developmental disorders; Fragile X Tremor Ataxia (FXTAS)    

Additional Keywords: Developmental neuroscience, early CNS pattern formation; cell fate determination; stem cells related to cerebellum; neural epigenetics, higher order chromatin structures, miRNA; animal models and animal model resources; Intellectual Disability; Intellectual and Developmental Disorders (IDD); cognition-related disorders, Klinefelter’s Syndrome, Turner’s Syndrome; developmental disorders of the cortex, dysplasia, microcephaly, lissencephaly; Pitt Hopkins; hypothalamic and pituitary development; music and health; birth defects related to neural development disorders

Innovation Grants to Nurture Initial Translational Efforts (IGNITE)

Health Equity; Sociodeterminants of Health; Pain Disparities; NIH HEAL Initiative; Health Disparities in Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Portfolio: Structural, biochemical, molecular, and cellular aspects of Parkinson's disease (PD) and Lewy body dementia (LBD) as it relates to alpha-synuclein structure, mitochondrial biology, and lysosomal function; role of environmental factors in the etiology of synucleinopathies; basic studies of protein quality control (mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction, protein aggregation, mitophagy, autophagy) in the pathogenesis of PD and LBD    

Additional Keywords: Glucocerebrosidase, GBA; lipid biology; oxidative stress; reactive oxygen species; synuclein structural biology; environment; PINK1; Parkin; DJ1

Portfolio: Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration (FTLD), Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD), Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA)    

Additional Keywords: MAPT, tau, FUS, TAF15, TDP-43, C9orf72; proteinopathies; tauopathies;, progranulin, PGRN, granulin,GRN, and TMEM106B; amyloid structural biology; biomolecular condensates and liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS)

Portfolio: Synucleinopathies, including Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Lewy body dementias; preclinical and clinical studies evaluating cellular and molecular neurodegeneration, genetic, and other risk factors    

Additional Keywords: Functional neurobiology of genetic risk factors; gut-brain axis; microbiome; neuroimmune; neuroinflammation; mood, cognitive dysfunction; LRRK2; synuclein transmission

NIH Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats Program (CounterACT)

Portfolio: Parkinson’s Disease (PD), Lewy Body Dementias (LBD), and related synucleinopathies focusing on biomarker discovery and validation, omics-based approaches, clinical genetics, epidemiology, and natural history studies    

Additional Keywords: Human genetics; proteomics; transcriptomics; PDBP; AMP PD; AMP PDRD

Portfolio: HEAL Initiative; HEAL Training and Workforce programs; pain    

Additional Keywords: n/a

Portfolio: BRAIN Initiative Neurotechnology Development Program, BRAIN CONNECTS Program

Additional Keywords: Neural stimulation/recording devices, neuroimaging, bioengineering, synaptic transmission, optical and optogenetics methods for recording and modulating neural activity

HEAL Initiative - Biomarkers Program and Blueprint Neurotherapeutics Network

Portfolio: BRAIN Initiative Research Resource Grants for Technology Integration and Dissemination (U24)

Additional Keywords: n/a

Portfolio: General glial biology; oligodendrocyte and Schwann cell development, function and myelination; basic astrocyte biology; neuronal polarity and migration; axon guidance    

Additional Keywords: Astrocytes; neurite outgrowth; neural cell migration; neuron-glia interactions

Portfolio: Diversity Faculty K01, MOSAIC K99/R00, ADRD K99/R00, D-SPAN F99/K00, Advancing R25, SuRE (R16), Diversity R01, ReWARD R01

Additional Keywords: n/a

Portfolio: Molecular structure, function, and regulation of ion channels, transporters, and pumps; channelopathy; mitochondria and mTORopathy mediated epileptic spasms and structural epilepsies; identifying novel genes and biomarkers for the epilepsies    

Additional Keywords: Epilepsy therapeutics; structural biology; protein biochemistry and protein-protein interactions

Portfolio: Translational and clinical studies that relate to traumatic brain injury (TBI); cognitive/emotional domains affected by TBI; TBI-related dementia including Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)    

Additional Keywords: Brain trauma, damage, and cortical impact; concussion; repetitive head injury; clinical (human); diffuse axonal injury

Portfolio: Multiple sclerosis and related disorders (including animal models thereof), studies on CNS demyelination and repair    

Additional Keywords: Neuromyelitis Optica (NMO); MOG antibody-associated disorders (MOGAD); NMDAR encephalitis; MS animal models (e.g. experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), cuprizone, TMEV); demyelination/remyelination in the CNS

Portfolio: Genetic epilepsies; metabolic epilepsy; sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP); clinical epilepsy research; myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and fatigue; alternating hemiplegia of children    

Additional Keywords: Epilepsy comorbidities and biomarkers; epilepsies and dementia/aging or pregnancy (maternal and fetal health in epilepsy)

brain computer interfaces, sensory and motor prostheses, limb loss, neuro-interventional technologies, systems neuroscience

Portfolio: NIH Genomic Data Sharing (GDS) policy; NIH Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP); NINDS Human Genetics DNA and Cell Line Repository    

Additional Keyword: Sequence analyses, whole genome sequencing, exome sequencing, and targeted genome sequencing