In our last two updates to highlight NINDS contributions to therapies for neurological disorders, we focused on a recombinant clot-busting protein for acute stroke, enzyme replacement therapies for lysosomal storage disorders, and an RNA-targeting treatment for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
Director's Messages
Researchers funded by the NIH BRAIN Initiative continue to break new ground in scientific discovery and technology development. BRAIN 2025, the strategic plan for the BRAIN Initiative at NIH, outlines the overarching vision and goals for the effort. Now at the halfway mark, the roadmap for this ambitious 10-year program to monitor, modulate and understand brain circuit activity is being revisited to assess BRAIN’s progress and potential updates to the plan moving forward.
At the end of January, we launched a new feature on our website that shows how NINDS and the research we support contribute to the discovery and development of treatments for neurological disorders.
In last month’s NINDS Director’s message I introduced the planning stages of the NIH HEAL Initiative, Helping to End Addiction Long-term. After months of planning, the HEAL Initiative is being rolled out today in a Viewpoint published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
NINDS Director Walter J. Koroshetz and NCI Director Norman E. Sharpless
The intent of the R35 is to provide funding stability that enables even greater innovation in the laboratories of investigators with a proven track record and a proposal judged to have outstanding potential by a peer review committee.
The NIH HEAL Initiative®, co-led by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, is accelerating pain research and addressing the opioid crisis by funding novel non-opioid treatments, developing device-based solutions, and enabling open-data collaboration to improve outcomes for millions of people living with chronic pain.
The toll that neurological disorders exact on patients and their families is truly tragic. Yet, looking forward there is cause for real optimism for some conditions.